Does Emotional Disclosure About Stress Improve Health in Rheumatoid Arthritis? Randomized, Controlled Trials of Written and Spoken Disclosure

Authors

Alison M. Radcliffe, Boise State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2011

Abstract

Studies of the effects of disclosing stressful experiences among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have yielded inconsistent findings, perhaps due to different disclosure methods—writing or speaking—and various methodological limitations. We randomized adults with RA to a writing (n = 88) or speaking (to a recorder) sample (n = 93), and within each sample, to either disclosure or one of two control groups (positive or neutral events), which conducted 4, 20-minute, at-home sessions. Follow-up evaluations at 1, 3, and 6 months included self-reported, behavioral, physiological, and blinded physician-assessed outcomes. In both writing and speaking samples, the disclosure and control groups were comparably credible, and the linguistic content differed as expected. Covariance analyses at each follow-up point indicated that written disclosure had minimal effects compared to combined controls—only pain was reduced at 1 and 6 months, but no other outcomes improved. Spoken disclosure led to faster walking speed at 3 months, and reduced pain, swollen joints, and physician-rated disease activity at 6 months, but there were no effects on other outcomes. Latent growth curve modeling examined differences in the trajectory of change over follow-ups. Written disclosure improved affective pain and walking speed; spoken disclosure showed only a marginal benefit on sensory pain. In both analyses, disclosure’s few benefits occurred relative to both positive and neutral control groups. We conclude that both written and spoken disclosure have modest benefits for patients with RA, particularly at 6 months, but these effects are limited in scope and consistency.

Comments

NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. The definitive version has been published in Pain, Volume 152, Issue 4, 2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2011.01.003

For complete list of authors, please see article.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2011.01.003

Publication Information

Radcliffe, Alison M.. (2011). "Does Emotional Disclosure About Stress Improve Health in Rheumatoid Arthritis? Randomized, Controlled Trials of Written and Spoken Disclosure". Pain, 152(4), 866–877.