Effects of Narrative Writing Duration and Post-writing Processing Instructions on PTSD

University of Mississippi, Oxford

Status: Completed

Conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Treatments: Behavioral: Narrative Writing: Trauma-Spontaneous; Behavioral: Narrative Writing: Trauma-Assigned

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01773811

UMO-0004

Details and patient eligibility

About

The current study proposes to directly measure how processing after participating in written disclosure about a traumatic life event affects physical and psychological outcomes.

Full description

Previous research has established the potential for narrative writing about traumatic events to result in positive benefits for physical and psychological health. Research has also provided evidence that written disclosure may reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Several mechanisms of action have been proposed to explain why written disclosure produces positive benefits, but all have focused on processes occurring during the writing session. It has been suggested, however, that additional processing may occur after the writing exercises are over, yet no research has studied the influence of this processing on outcomes. The current study proposes to directly measure how processing after participating in written disclosure affects physical and psychological outcomes.

Enrollment: 49 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Experienced a traumatic life event (DSM-IV-TR Criterion A)
• Currently experiencing clinically significant levels of PTSD symptoms

Exclusion criteria

• Currently receiving psychotherapy
• On medication that is not stable (i.e. medication has been changed within the past 6 weeks)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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49 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Individuals will write objectively about the events of their day.

Narrative Writing: Trauma-Assigned

Experimental group

Description:

Trauma-assigned: Individuals will write about their most traumatic life experience and be instructed to continue to think about their writing topic in the weeks following writing.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Narrative Writing: Trauma-Assigned

Narrative Writing: Trauma-Spontaneous

Active Comparator group

Description:

Individuals will write about their most traumatic life experience but will not be given further instructions for processing. Any additional processing about their writing topic in the weeks following writing will be considered spontaneous.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Narrative Writing: Trauma-Spontaneous