The effects of expressive writing interventions for patients with cancer: a meta-analysis
Pooling 14 trials and 1,718 cancer patients, expressive writing produced a significant but small improvement in cancer symptoms, while effects on psychological and cognitive outcomes were not significant. The authors conclude the standard writing protocol may simply be too light a dose.
A third review of roughly the same literature, and a third slightly different answer.
Oh and Kim searched international and Korean databases and meta-analysed 14 trials - 13 randomised, one not - covering 1,718 patients with cancer, comparing expressive writing against either neutral writing or usual care.
There was a significant small effect on relieving cancer symptoms. Effects on psychological and cognitive outcomes were not significant. In subgroup analysis, health-related quality of life did differ between the writing group and the usual-care group.
The authors’ conclusion is the interesting part: they suggest the traditional expressive writing protocol may need to be intensified to show its effect. The standard paradigm - write for 15 to 20 minutes on three or four consecutive days, once - is a very small dose to expect lasting change from.
They describe the evidence as promising, but explicitly not conclusive.
Only the symptom outcome reached significance; psychological and cognitive outcomes did not. One of the 14 included trials was not randomised. The authors describe current evidence as promising but not conclusive, and the quality-of-life finding appeared only in a subgroup comparison against usual care.
Summarized by Tiago Martins · Last updated: · How we write these
