Search -
Emotional disclosure (expressive writing) and health: The impact of the emotional disclosure intervention on physical and psychological health. A systematic review and randomised controlled trial
Emotional disclosure and health The impact of the emotional disclosure intervention on physical and psychological health A systematic review and randomised controlled trial - expressive writing Author:Catherine Meads This thesis investigated whether an expressive writing intervention known as emotional disclosure improved health at follow up. Emotional disclosure is a technique whereby participants write on a traumatic, stressful or upsetting event, usually from their past, for a short time such as one hour in total. A systematic review of 61 emotional... more » disclosure randomised controlled trials (RCTs) found no significant effects on a wide variety of health related outcomes. A high quality RCT was undertaken where one hundred healthy students were randomised to standard emotional disclosure writing or neutral writing control and all followed up at 3 months for illnesses, health centre visits and questionnaire measures of general psychological health. There was no difference found in almost all health-related measures such as self-reported illnesses, general psychological health and self-esteem. There is no clear evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of emotional disclosure, but no clear evidence of harm either. The evidence suggests that this intervention has very little effect, contrary to the impression given in the academic literature.« less