Comparing Targets of Expressive Writing

Healthy Clinical Trial

Official title:

Comparing Targets of Expressive Writing

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06130020
• Other study ID #: Princeton15734
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: November 2023
• Est. completion date: November 2024

Study information

• Verified date: November 2023
• Source: Trustees of Princeton University
• Contact: Claire Whiting, MRes
• Phone: (609) 258-5064
• Email: lemolab[@]princeton.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Expressive writing involves writing about one's deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding an emotional event. The current literature on the efficacy of expressive writing is mixed and warrants further investigation into how, when, and for whom expressive writing is an effective intervention. The goal of this study is to compare the efficacy of expressive writing interventions in young adults when people imagine that they're writing to themselves vs. a loved one. Participants will carry out an expressive writing exercise for 14 consecutive days. Participants are randomized into 3 groups: Self, Other, and Control. The Self group is instructed to write as if they were talking to themselves. The Other group is instructed to direct their writing to someone they feel close to. The Control group is asked to write down a factual description of their routine that day, and direct this writing to themselves. We will recruit participants until we have usable data from 53 participants per group (i.e., 159 in total).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 159
• Est. completion date: November 2024
• Est. primary completion date: November 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 25 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• US-based

• Fluent English

• Combined GAD-7 and PHQ-8 score of = 5

Exclusion Criteria:

• "Completion" of a writing session requires participants to spend at least 15 minutes on the writing page. We will monitor completion of the daily writing exercise, and will contact participants who miss or spend less than 15 minutes on the exercise. Participants who fail to complete 3 consecutive daily writing sessions will be deemed non-compliant, removed from the study, and paid a prorated amount for the tasks they have completed in the study.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Healthy

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Expressive Writing: Self
This intervention consists of a daily expressive writing exercise carried out for 14 consecutive days, for 15 minutes each day. Expressive writing involves asking participants to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding an emotional event. Participants in this condition will write as if they are writing to themselves.
• Expressive Writing: Other
This intervention consists of a daily expressive writing exercise carried out for 14 consecutive days, for 15 minutes each day. Expressive writing involves asking participants to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding an emotional event. Participants in this condition will write as if they are writing/talking to someone they're close to.
• Factual Writing
This intervention consists of a daily factual writing exercise carried out for 14 consecutive days, for 15 minutes each day. Participants are asked to give a factual description of their day. This is a standard control for Expressive writing studies. Participants in this condition will be asked to direct their writing to themselves.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Peretsman Scully Hall	Princeton	New Jersey

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Trustees of Princeton University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (1)

Pennebaker JW, Beall SK. Confronting a traumatic event: toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. J Abnorm Psychol. 1986 Aug;95(3):274-81. doi: 10.1037//0021-843x.95.3.274. No abstract available. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Sleep Quality	Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Total scores range from 0-21, with higher scores indicating poorer sleep quality.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Depression, Anxiety, and Stress	Depression, Anxiety, and Stress-21 (DASS-21). Scores for each of the three subscales range from 0-42, with higher scores indicating greater severity.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Alexithymia (TAS)	Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). Scores range from 20-100, with higher scores indicating greater alexithymia.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Alexithymia (PAQ)	Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ). Total scores range from 24-168, with higher scores indicating greater alexithymia.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Emotion Regulation	Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Scores for the reappraisal and suppression subscales range from 6-42 and 4-28 respectively. Higher scores indicate greater use of the strategy.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Interpersonal Regulation	Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ). Total scores range from 16-112, with higher scores indicating greater tendency to use/efficacy of interpersonal emotion regulation.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Social Desirability	Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS). Scores range from 0-33, with higher scores indicating greater social desirability.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Social Connectedness	Social Connectedness Scale (SCS). Scores range from 8-48, with higher scores indicating greater connectedness to others.	Initial visit (day 1), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Other	Daily Sleep	Consensus Sleep Diary (CSD). Items are used to derive estimates of sleep indices, such as time in bed and total sleep time.	Daily from day 1 to day 14
Other	Sleepiness	Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). Scores on this single-item scale range from 1-10, with higher scores indicating greater sleepiness.	Daily from day 1 to day 14
Primary	Anxiety	Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). Scores range from 0-21, with higher scores indicating more severe anxiety.	Initial visit (day 1), mid-point (day 7) final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)
Primary	Depression	Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8). Scores range from 0-24, with higher scores indicating more severe depression.	Initial visit (day 1), mid-point (day 7), final visit (day 15), 1-month follow-up (1 month after day 14)