Clinical trial NCT00831727: The Role of Affect Regulation and Self-presentation in the Expressive Writing Intervention
Official title: Examining Potential Moderators and Mediators in the Expressive Writing Intervention: The Role of Affect Regulation and Self-presentation.
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorders
Keywords: expressive writing
trauma
intervention
posttraumatic stress
Lead sponsor: University of Toronto
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2009-01-29
Enrollment: 75
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, we will attempt to examine the role that emotion regulation and self-presentation play as potential moderators in the expressive writing paradigm. We hypothesize that expressive writing participants who demonstrate greater abilities to regulate their emotions at baseline will improve more on our outcome measures. We also hypothesize that those expressive writing participants who demonstrate higher levels of self-presentation at baseline will improve less on our outcome measures.

The second aim of the study has two related objectives. First, we will attempt to investigate whether the expressive writing intervention can increase and enhance an individual's emotion regulation abilities. Related to this, we will then go on to examine whether emotion regulation can be looked at as a potential mechanism of action in the expressive writing procedure. Related to these two objectives, we hypothesize that in comparison to the control group, participants in the expressive writing condition will show increases in their ability to regulate their emotions from baseline to four week follow up. Moreover, we predict that greater gains in emotion regulation abilities for the expressive writing participants will be significantly related to greater gains in outcome measures.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Fluent in English
* Previously experienced trauma (not current or ongoing; excluding bereavement)
* Currently experiencing trauma-related distress

Exclusion Criteria:

* Currently involved in psychotherapy
* Currently taking psychotropic medications
* Imminent threat to self or others

Primary outcomes:
measure: Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale
timeFrame: Initial session; One month follow-up
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale
timeFrame: Initial session; One month follow-up
measure: Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness
timeFrame: Initial session; One month follow-up
measure: Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition
timeFrame: Initial session; One month follow-up
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Toronto
country: Canada
facility: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Toronto
name: Jeanne C Watson, Ph.D.
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: University of Toronto
name: Justin M Mattina, M.A.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Toronto
name: Jonathan J Danson, B.A.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: