Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 25:12:624176.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.624176. eCollection 2021.

Benefits of Expressive Writing on Healthcare Workers' Psychological Adjustment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rossella Procaccia  1 , Giulia Segre  1 , Giancarlo Tamanza  2 , Gian Mauro Manzoni  1
Affiliations

Benefits of Expressive Writing on Healthcare Workers' Psychological Adjustment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rossella Procaccia et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

COVID-19 outbroke in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and promptly became a pandemic worldwide, endangering health and life but also causing mild-to-severe psychological distress to lots of people, including healthcare workers (HCWs). Several studies have already showed a high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic symptoms in HCWs but less is known about the efficacy of psychological interventions for relieving their mental distress. The aims of this study were: (1) to evaluate the psychological adjustment of Italian HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) to investigate the efficacy of an expressive writing (EW) intervention, based on Pennebaker's paradigmatic protocol, on their psychological adjustment; (3) to analyze if outcomes of EW vary in function of individual differences (age, gender, marital status, and baseline values of symptoms). Fifty-five HCWs were randomly assigned to one of two writing conditions: EW (n = 30) or neutral writing (NW; n = 25). Psychological adjustment (in terms of ptsd, depression and global psychopathology's symptoms, perceived social support, and resilience) was assessed before and after three writing sessions. Participants who received the EW intervention showed higher improvements in ptsd, depression, and global psychopathology symptoms. Improvements in EW group varied in function of age, gender, marital status, and baseline values: young, men, married participants and those who had higher baseline scores showed a higher reduction of psychological distress symptoms while women, single and those who had lower baseline value showed increased social support, and resilience. In conclusion, the EW intervention had positive effects which varied in function of individual differences on HCWs' psychological health.

Keywords: COVID-19; distress; expressive writing; healthcare workers; psychological adjustment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Expressive and neutral writing instructions.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Graphs of repeated-measure ANOVAs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Austria-Corrales F., Cruz-Valdés B., Herrera-Kiengelher L., Vázquez-García J. C., Salas-Hernández J. (2011). Burnout syndrome among medical residents during the influenza A H1N1 sanitary contigency in Mexico. Gac. Med. Méx. 147 97–103. - PubMed
    1. Baikie K. A. (2003). Rewriting Trauma: How and for Whom Does the Writing Paradigm Work? Doctoral dissertation, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW.
    1. Baikie K. A., Wilhelm K. (2005). Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Adv. Psychiatric Treat. 11 338–346. 10.1192/apt.11.5.338 - DOI
    1. Beck A. T., Steer R. A., Brown G. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory(BDI-II), 2nd Edn. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
    1. Brugha T. S., Morrell C. J., Slade P., Walters S. J. (2011). Universal prevention of depression in women postnatally: cluster randomized trial evidence in primary care. Psychol. Med. 41 739–748. 10.1017/S0033291710001467 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources