Expressive Writing for Co-Occurring Depression and Alcohol Misuse

Depression Clinical Trial

Official title:

Expressive Writing for Co-Occurring Depression and Alcohol Misuse

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00818636
• Other study ID #: 1R03AA016819-01A1
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: January 6, 2009
• Last updated: January 26, 2015
• Start date: August 2008
• Est. completion date: December 2011

Study information

• Verified date: January 2015
• Source: Baylor College of Medicine
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Institutional Review Board
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

***Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. Further, this study is only enrolling people who are clients at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., in Houston.

The hypothesis is that writing about feelings and thoughts will help people who are in group treatment feel less depressed and abuse alcohol less.

Description:

Expressive writing applied to a variety of populations (e.g., HIV, cancer, PTSD, depression) has been associated with health improvements, reductions in symptoms of emotional distress, and one preliminary study found reductions in alcohol misuse among college students. Data suggest that expressive writing is a technique to facilitate emotional processing that can influence a number of clinical outcomes by facilitating cognitive restructuring (Hunt, 1998; Pennebaker, 2004). In addition to examining cognitive content change following expressive writing, we believe the effects of emotional writing on mood and drinking may involve two additional processes that have been found significant for both depression and alcohol misuse, namely experiential avoidance and ruminative thinking. We hypothesize that expressive writing will lead to less drinking and enhanced mood by reducing: (1) negative thought content, (2) experiential avoidance of unpleasant private events (e.g., negative thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations), and (3) ruminative thinking.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 89
• Est. completion date: December 2011
• Est. primary completion date: March 2010
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

***Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. Further, this study is only enrolling people who are clients at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., in Houston.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled in group therapy program at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc.

• Must be at least 18.

• Willing and able to participate in the study through the one month follow up.

• Able to provide the contact information of at least two people who can generally locate their whereabouts.

• Speak English fluently.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to read, write, speak English.

• History of bipolar or psychotic disorders.

• Severe medical, cognitive and /or psychiatric impairment that precludes cooperation with study protocol.

• Substance withdrawal symptoms requiring medical attention.

• Currently receiving other individual psychosocial therapy outside of C&R for substance abuse or other psychiatric conditions with the exception of AA, NA or CA.

• Impending incarceration or other factor that would create inability or unwillingness to participate in the 6 week long study period (e.g., halfway house or other aftercare program restrictions).

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Alcohol, Drinking
• Depression
• Depressive Disorder

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Expressive writing (in addition to group therapy as usual).
Participants in the expressive writing condition write about their feelings about an issue of their choosing three times, for at least 20 minutes each time, during a two week period.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Career and Recovery Resources, Inc.	Houston	Texas

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Baylor College of Medicine	National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (1)

Frattaroli J. Experimental disclosure and its moderators: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 2006 Nov;132(6):823-65. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition		Baseline, Post-writing (2 weeks post-baseline), and One Month Follow-Up (Six weeks post-baseline)	No
Secondary	Number of Alcoholic Drinks Consumed		30 days pre-baseline compared to 30 days post-intervention	No

External Links

•   Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. This study is only enrolling people at Career and Recovery.