Expressive Writing for Co-Occurring Depression and Alcohol Misuse

Baylor College of Medicine

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol, Drinking; Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Expressive writing (in addition to group therapy as usual).

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00818636

1R03AA016819-01A1

Details and patient eligibility

About

***Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. Further, this study is only enrolling people who are clients at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., in Houston.

The hypothesis is that writing about feelings and thoughts will help people who are in group treatment feel less depressed and abuse alcohol less.

Full description

Expressive writing applied to a variety of populations (e.g., HIV, cancer, PTSD, depression) has been associated with health improvements, reductions in symptoms of emotional distress, and one preliminary study found reductions in alcohol misuse among college students. Data suggest that expressive writing is a technique to facilitate emotional processing that can influence a number of clinical outcomes by facilitating cognitive restructuring (Hunt, 1998; Pennebaker, 2004). In addition to examining cognitive content change following expressive writing, we believe the effects of emotional writing on mood and drinking may involve two additional processes that have been found significant for both depression and alcohol misuse, namely experiential avoidance and ruminative thinking. We hypothesize that expressive writing will lead to less drinking and enhanced mood by reducing: (1) negative thought content, (2) experiential avoidance of unpleasant private events (e.g., negative thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations), and (3) ruminative thinking.

Enrollment: 89 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

***Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. Further, this study is only enrolling people who are clients at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., in Houston.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled in group therapy program at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc.
• Must be at least 18.
• Willing and able to participate in the study through the one month follow up.
• Able to provide the contact information of at least two people who can generally locate their whereabouts.
• Speak English fluently.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to read, write, speak English.
• History of bipolar or psychotic disorders.
• Severe medical, cognitive and /or psychiatric impairment that precludes cooperation with study protocol.
• Substance withdrawal symptoms requiring medical attention.
• Currently receiving other individual psychosocial therapy outside of C&R for substance abuse or other psychiatric conditions with the exception of AA, NA or CA.
• Impending incarceration or other factor that would create inability or unwillingness to participate in the 6 week long study period (e.g., halfway house or other aftercare program restrictions).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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89 participants in 2 patient groups

Expressive Writing

Experimental group

Description:

In addition to attending group therapy as usual, participants write about their feelings about an issue of their choosing three times during a two week period for at least 20 minutes each time.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Expressive writing (in addition to group therapy as usual).

Treatment as Usual

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants attend group therapy as usual only.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Expressive writing (in addition to group therapy as usual).