Writing about one's experience of dealing with cancer may help change the cancer patient's outlook, improving his or her quality of life. Expressive writing refers to writing about one's deepest thoughts and feelings about life's experiences. Studies have shown that this practice can benefit people with health conditions such as asthma, arthritis, and pelvic pain. The benefits, in some studies, have included physical ones, like reduced pain and improved immune function. However, past studies of expressive writing for cancer patients have been done in controlled, lab settings. To better understand how expressive writing benefits cancer patients, researchers in America brought their writing programme into a busy cancer clinic, and asked patients on the spot, as they sat in the waiting room, if they would participate in a 20-minute writing session. Of 98 patients, 71 agreed. The writing exercise prompted patients to write either about the issues in life that were most important to them or, more specifically, how having cancer had changed them. In a survey taken immediately afterward, half of the patients said that the writing experience had changed the way they thought about their disease. Three weeks later, 54 per cent people felt that way. Moreover, patients who reported such changes tended to score higher on a standard measure of quality of life than they did before the writing exercise. The positive change in attitude of patients suffering from chronic health conditions could be because they are allowed to process their thoughts and emotions through writing, which produces both psychological and physiological changes. However, there are likely a number of reasons why expressive writing has benefits. The findings indicate that a single, brief writing exercise can change a cancer patient's outlook, improving his or her quality of life. Thus, expressive writing offers a simple, effective, and low-cost tool to help cancer patients cope, and should be practiced more often.
The Oncologist,
February 2008