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The purpose of this study was to clarify how terminally ill patients think and feel while hospitalized, thereby providing some insight into improving the quality of terminal care. The subjects of the study were eight terminally ill patients with cancer. The researchers obtained the patients' consent and their doctors' permission prior to conducting the interviews. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The patients' thoughts and feelings were extracted and then categorized according to particular themes. As a result, we came up with four major categories: maintaining pain control, living an ordinary life, hoping for improvement of physical condition, and having family nearby. The desire to live life to its fullest given their situation, as well as to maintain a hopeful attitude about their future proved very important. The presence of family also played a crucial role. These factors must be taken into consideration in achieving better care for terminally ill patients.

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The purpose of this pilot study was to examine and evaluate the psychological and physiological effects of multiple sessions of laughter yoga on community members. Participants took part in a 45 min laughter yoga session once per month for 6 months. Before and after all sessions, participants completed the Profile of Mood States-Brief Japanese Version (J-POMS-B) questionnaire to assess their mood, and had blood drawn for the measurement of stress indicators and immune function. Serial changes in J-POMS-B scores were tested by three way analysis of variance, and changes in laboratory results per session were evaluated with a paired t-test. The results showed that repeated sessions of laughter yoga had psychologically beneficial effects, especially on the aspects of tension-anxiety, and vigor. Adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol values related to the participants' stress levels were significantly decreased after the fourth laughter yoga session. These results indicated that multiple laughter yoga sessions appeared to be effective in improving the psychological and physiological status of healthy adults.

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