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Written Emotional Expression Produces Health Benefits in Fibromyalgia Patients

From the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY (J.E.B., J.E.S.); and the Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY (D.U.J.).

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Joan E. Broderick, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Putnam Hall, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8790. E-mail: Joan.Broderick{at}stonybrook.edu

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.

Conclusion: Fibromyalgia patients experienced short-term benefits in psychological and health variables through emotional expression of personal traumatic experiences.

Key Words: fibromyalgia • self disclosure • pain • well-being • randomized clinical trial

Abbreviations: ED = written emotional disclosure; RA = rheumatoid arthritis; QOL = Quality of Life Scale; STAI-S = state version, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; BDI = Beck Depression Inventory; MOS = Medical Outcome Study; CLINHAQ = Clinical Health Assessment Questionnaire; FIQ = Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire; VAS = visual analogue scale; NW = neutral writing group; UC = usual-care control group; ANOVA = analysis of variance; ES = effect size.

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