Therapeutic writing as an intervention for symptoms of bulimia nervosa: Effects and mechanism of change

Abstract

For individuals experiencing symptoms of bulimia, the effects of therapeutic writing did not differ significantly from effects of a control writing task.

Effects and Linguistic Analysis of Written Traumatic Emotional Disclosure in an Eating-Disordered Population

“…Whereas increased use of cognitive and insight words typically reflects improvements in health after writing, other studies have also shown this trend but without health benefits at follow-up. 11,32 One study found that this trend was related to improvements in somatic symptoms but not in subjective distress, suggesting only certain types of benefits are derived. 30 Our study demonstrated increasing use of causation words and significantly greater use of cognitive words in the disclosure group but without reduction in eating-disorder symptoms or cognitions, which is consistent with previous findings.…”

“…30 Our study demonstrated increasing use of causation words and significantly greater use of cognitive words in the disclosure group but without reduction in eating-disorder symptoms or cognitions, which is consistent with previous findings. 11 We also analyzed how common references to food were in the writings. On the first two days, the control group used significantly more words related to food; however, their use of food words declined significantly overall across the writing task.…”

“…37,38 Another group suggests that emotional arousal from disclosure may be less beneficial for this population. 11 Another possible moderating factor of emotional disclosure is the coping style of participants. In patients with breast cancer, writing about the positive aspects of having had cancer is associated with psychological benefit for women high in emotional avoidance, whereas writing about the negative aspects of it was more beneficial for women low in avoidance.…”

“…Although it appears that completing writings at home is at least equally effective as completing them on-site and may actually be preferred, it does introduce a new variable into the study that cannot be accounted for otherwise. 11,45 It also is possible that the effect of the emotional disclosure writing task may have been insignificant in the setting of active enrollment in a treatment program. We also did not account for medications or comorbid psychiatric diagnoses.…”

“…One such study found that undergraduates with moderate to severe bulimia nervosa symptoms who underwent this type of disclosure used more words related to affect and cognitive mechanisms; however, no marked health benefits were elucidated. 11 The present study was devised to investigate the benefits and linguistic trends of written emotional disclosure in patients with eating disorders and to assess whether it is a useful therapeutic modality for this population.…”