title: Written emotional expression produces health benefits in fibromyalgia patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8790, USA. Joan.Broderick@stonybrook.edu
authors.forename: Joan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Broderick
authors.forename: Doerte U
authors.initials: DU
authors.lastname: Junghaenel
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: 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