Trials are under way to see if “comedy on prescription” can help improve people’s mental health and reduce NHS costs by being an alternative to antidepressants.
Craic Health has secured funding for a scheme which uses stand-up shows and workshops to help people who are isolated, lonely and vulnerable.
Its project is aimed at helping the government work with the comedy industry, communities and organisations on comedy-based social prescriptions, in the hope the health service can use them more widely.
The work is being supported by Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher, who helped pioneer social prescriptions in Gloucestershire.
Speaking in parliament, he has warned of “the pandemic of over-prescription” and outlined how “making people laugh can avoid the need for medication” in parliament.
He said: “I’ve particularly specialised in using the arts to make people better so that could be poetry, visual arts or sometimes even drama, and I’ve also used things like gardening, I’ve prescribed allotments to people and that sort of thing.
“But this is the first time that we’ve tried comedy and that’s what’s exciting about this.”
A total of 8.7 million people in England took antidepressants in 2023/24, according to NHS figures – an increase of 2.1% compared to the previous year.
The drugs should not be routinely offered as the first treatment for less severe depression unless it is the person’s preference, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines state.
“One in five adults are on antidepressants and that’s partly because there’s no other treatment really often available,” Dr Opher said.
Craic founder Lu Jackson said comedy is a “cortisol decreaser, dopamine producer, potent releaser of serotonin, endorphins and good neuropeptides”.
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“Going to one comedy workshop or going to one stand-up comedy event or having a comedian come in and teach kids how to improvise and giggle at themselves, it’s got an effect for 24 hours and surely that’s better than prescribing antidepressants,” she added.
The company has received a grant from the One Westminster charity and Westminster libraries has offered its facilities for the initial events.
