Writing reduces distress

Writing about receiving their child’s diagnosis of leukaemia has been found to reduce parents’ distress.

These are the findings presented on Friday 5 September 2003, by Yori Gidron and colleagues from Southampton, Glasgow Caledonian and Ben-Gurion Universities at the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology annual conference, held at Staffordshire University.

Research by psychologists has previously found that parents of children with leukaemia may have long-term distress.

 Also writing about traumatic events has been found to improve psychological well-being.

In this study, parents of children with leukaemia wrote about receiving their child’s diagnosis and treatment chronologically, labelling their feelings and describing any insights they had. Parents who wrote about the diagnosis experienced less distress one to three months later.

Dr. Gidron said “this is one of the first studies to reduce distress in parents of children with leukaemia”.