Examining the effects of written emotional disclosure paradigm on the psychological health of individuals with breast cancer

Breast cancer is one of the diseases whose frequency is increasing day by day. Having a cancer diagnosis negatively affects the psychological health of people. Various interventions are applied to reduce the psychological distress experienced by the diagnosed persons. One of these interventions is the Written Emotional Disclosure Paradigm. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the Written Emotional Disclosure Paradigm (WEDP) in female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. An experimental and control group research was designed to test the effects of WEDP on depression, anxiety, styles of coping with stress, quality of life, perceived social support, and psychological flexibility. The sample of the study consists of 82 female breast cancer patients aged between 30 and 78 (m= 51.95, sd = 11.25). The participants in the experimental group wrote their deep feelings and thoughts about the disease processes randomly to positive, negative and mixed writing groups. The participants in the control group did not have any writing tasks, and the participants only filled the questionnaire at 3 different times (pre-test, post-test after 4 days and follow-up test after 30 days from post-test). A questionnaire set consisting of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Short Form - 36, The Scales of Stress-Coping Styles, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Acceptance and Action Questionnaire - II scales were applied to the participants before starting writing, after writing and after one month of writing. The hypotheses of the study were tested by applying 4 X 3 mixed ANOVA, Correlation and Regression analyzes. In the results of the study, it was seen that there were significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in terms of depression, perceived social support and psychological inflexibility level. There was a decrease in the levels of depression and psychological inflexibility and an increase perceived social support of those in writing practice. However, it was found that the WEDP intervention did not cause any difference in the levels of anxiety, quality of life, and styles of coping with stress. In addition, variables which are stress coping styles, perceived social support and psychological inflexibility predicting depression, anxiety and quality of life were determined. In the light of the findings, clinical implications, limitations and suggestions for future studies were discussed. Keywords: Written Expressive Disclosure Paradigm, Breast Cancer, Depression, Social Support, Quality of Life, Psychological Inflexibility