The Effectiveness of Expressive Writing on a Sample of New Mothers

University of Roma La Sapienza

Status: Completed

Conditions: Maternal Distress; Health Care Utilization

Treatments: Behavioral: Expressive Writing tecnique; Behavioral: Neutral Writing

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04803344

URomLS_2

Details and patient eligibility

About

This pilot study aims to evaluate the effects of an expressive writing intervention on a sample of new mothers after the childbirth on the psychological health and on the healthcare costs. The mothers were evaluated also in a follow-up one month after the end of the expressive writing intervention.

Full description

Women are recruited starting from the sixth month of pregnancy; forty-one eventually agreed to participate and they were randomly assigned to two groups: an Experimental group (treated with the expressive writing task, one weeks-three months after childbirth) and a Control group (no intervention).

Psychological health is measured at three stages:

before intervention, at 8-9 months pregnant (T0); after intervention, from 1 week to 3 months after delivery (T1); and a follow-up after 1 to 3 months (T2). The assessment protocol consists of the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI), the Toronto Alexythimia Scale-20 (TAS-20), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y), the Rating Scale For Rapid Stress Assessment (VRS) and the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12). The healthcare costs are collected at baseline (T0) and follow-up (T2) with a survey created ad hoc, in which participants reported the number and the type of the medical examinations, hospitalisations, prescribed drugs etc. Social and personal data are collected from the first survey.

Enrollment: 41 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 45 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age > 18 years
• > 6 months of pregnancy
• no medical complications during pregnancy

Exclusion criteria

• medical complication during pregnancy
• no comprehension of Italian language

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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41 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental Group

Experimental group

Description:

After the childbirth, writing group participants has been asked to write for 3 consecutive days, 20 minutes each days, all the deepest emotions and feelings related to the pregnancy.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Expressive Writing tecnique

Control Group

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Neutral Writing