Expressive Writing with Cancer Patients

简介(申请人提供)：这项计划的目的是提高生活质素和 通过在随机试验中评估表达写作干预对癌症患者的生存体验。对表达写作干预在健康和患病人群中的有效性的强烈支持表明它在肿瘤学环境中的应用。 表现性写作是一种非常简短、成本效益高的治疗方法，对于对参加冗长的团体计划不感兴趣的患者来说，它可以作为一种有吸引力的替代方案。将对165名癌症患者进行随机临床试验。参与者将从霍林斯癌症中心招募，并被随机分为三种情况之一：表达写作干预、社会认知干预或标准护理。在对包括疾病类型、年龄和性别在内的人口统计特征进行分层后，将进行随机化。心理和自我报告身体功能的研究结果将在登记时、治疗结束时以及干预完成后2个月和6个月进行评估。结果包括：生活质量、健康功能、情绪处理和表达、利益发现和情绪。治疗对生活质量和健康功能的影响将通过协方差分析、控制测试前分数以及相关的人口统计特征来确定。如果富有表现力的写作可以改善心理和/或身体功能，它可以作为一种具有成本效益的、短暂的心理治疗方法，提高癌症患者的生活质量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this project is to enhance the quality of life and survivorship experiences of cancer patients through evaluation of an expressive writing intervention within a randomized trail. Strong support for the efficacy of expressive writing interventions with both healthy and medically ill populations suggests its utility for application within an oncology setting. Expressive writing is a very brief, cost-effective treatment approach that can serve as an attractive alternative for patients not interested in attending lengthy group programs. A randomized clinical trail with 165 cancer patients will be conducted. Participants will be recruited from Hollings Cancer Center and randomized to one of three conditions: expressive writing intervention, social cognitive intervention, or standard care. Randomization will occur after stratification of demographic characteristics including disease type, age, and gender. Study outcomes of psychological and selfreported physical functioning will be assessed at enrollment, treatment completion, and 2 and 6 months following intervention completion. Outcomes include: quality of life, health functioning, emotional processing and expression, benefit-finding, and mood. The effect of treatment on quality of life and health functioning will be determined by analysis of co-variance, controlling for pre-test scores as well as relevant demographic characteristics. If expressive writing improves psychological and/or physical functioning, it can serve as a cost-effective, brief, psychological treatment that improves cancer patients' quality of life.