Cognitive and Health Benefits of Expressive Writing for Family Caregivers Under Stress

University of Toronto120 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to determine if expressive writing is an effective intervention for reducing stress, enhancing cognition, and improving quality of life for caregivers of older adults with dementia

A significant and growing need exists to support caregivers of older adults with dementia, including methods of support that are easily implemented and targeted at caregivers who can not access multicomponent interventions. The current intervention examines the efficacy of one such approach: expressive writing (EW). We are examining the efficacy of EW, in terms of its ability to reduce stress, enhance cognition, and improve well-being, by comparing it to two control conditions: objective writing about how caregivers spend their time (time management; TM) and objective writing about non-personal historical events (history writing; HW).

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

120

Conditions

Stress, Psychological Anxiety

Interventions

Expressive WritingBEHAVIORAL

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Primary family caregiver for an older adult with dementia * Self-reported caregiver stress or burden * Fluency in written/spoken English Exclusion Criteria: * non-family or non-primary caregiver * existing use of expressive writing / diary

Locations (1)

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

General Health Questionnaire

Impact of Events Scale

Zarit Burden Interview (short form)

California Verbal Learning Test

Ruff 2 & 7 Selective Attention Test

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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