Effects of emotional disclosure on psychological and physiological outcomes in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: an exploratory home-based study

M.A. Wetherell, L. Byrne-Davis, P. Dieppe, J. Donovan, S. Brookes, M. Byron, K. Vedhara, R. Horne, J. Weinman, J. Miles

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The effects of an exploratory, home-based emotional disclosure intervention on psychological and physiological outcomes were assessed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Patients were randomly assigned to a disclosure group (n = 19) in which they wrote/talked about traumatic personal experiences, or to a control group (n = 15) in which they wrote/talked about the events of a particular day. Participants undertook these tasks for periods of 20 minutes on 4 consecutive days. The disclosure group demonstrated increases in negative mood and objective markers of disease activity at 1 week post-intervention. However, there were significant trends for the disclosure group to demonstrate minor improvements in mood and stability in disease activity, compared with the control group. These group differences appeared to be due to deteriorations in the control group more than improvements in the disclosure group.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)277-285
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Health Psychology
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005

Keywords

  • disease activity • emotional disclosure • inhibition • rheumatoid arthritis • stress

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