Written emotional expression produces health benefits in fibromyalgia patients.
OBJECTIVE
Written expression of traumatic experiences, an intervention found to have health benefits in rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and breast cancer, was tested in a randomized, controlled trial with female fibromyalgia patients. It was hypothesized that relative to controls, patients engaging in the writing intervention would experience improved status on psychological well-being and physical health variables.


METHODS
Patients (N = 92) were randomized into a trauma writing group, a control writing group, or usual care control group. The two writing groups wrote in the laboratory for 20 minutes on 3 days at 1-week intervals. Psychological well-being, pain, and fatigue were the primary outcome variables. Assessments were made at pretreatment, posttreatment, 4-month follow-up, and 10-month follow-up.


RESULTS
The trauma writing group experienced significant reductions in pain (effect size [ES] = 0.49) and fatigue (ES = 0.62) and better psychological well-being (ES = 0.47) at the 4-month follow-up relative to the control groups. Benefits were not maintained at the 10-month follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Fibromyalgia patients experienced short-term benefits in psychological and health variables through emotional expression of personal traumatic experiences.
Broderick
Joan E
JE
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8790, USA. Joan.Broderick@stonybrook.edu
Junghaenel
Doerte U
DU
Schwartz
Joseph E
JE
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D004644:Emotions; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014956:Writing