Expressive Writing Helps Breast Cancer Survivors Cope with PTSD

Writing about fears, anxiety and problems can ease psychological effects of undergoing breast cancer treatment, a new study finds.

Few research papers discuss problems faced by breast cancer survivors. A new study, by Qian Lu from the University of Houston (UH), finds that expressive writing can help breast cancer survivors cope with depression and anxiety.

The study is published in the journal Health Psychology   

"The key to developing an expressive writing intervention is the writing instruction. Otherwise, writing is just like a journal recording facts and events. Writing a journal can be therapeutic, but oftentimes we don't get the empirical evidence to determine whether it's effective or not," said Qian Lu, assistant professor and director of the Culture and Health Research Center at UH, according to a news release.

Breast cancer survivors face a unique set of challenges. The two most important problems are lethargy and fuzzy thinking.

"Cancer patients, like war veterans in Iraq, can experience post-traumatic stress symptoms. Many times when cancer patients get diagnosed, they face lots of emotional trauma. There's a sense of loss, depression, anxiety about going into treatment and how they are going to face the future," said Lu. "They have a lot of emotional events going on in their life."

Lu says that almost all studies exploring the psychological needs of breast cancer patients have focused on non-Hispanic white population. The present study tried to look at the problems faced by cancer survivors of a minority community.

According to researchers, Asian- American breast cancer survivors have to cope with feelings of being stigmatized and shame due to cancer. These people often feel that they should bear the burden of their problems alone due to cultural beliefs that encourage suppression of emotions. Language barriers also prevent breast cancer patients of Asian-American community from reaching out to get help.

Researchers found that writing about emotionally challenging events for just 20 to 30 minutes for three-four days a week increased immune function in the participants. Expressive writing helped women bear with stress and pain that accompanies breast cancer.

Lu collaborated with community-based partners to help recruit breast cancer patients. Participants were asked to answer a questionnaire and were asked to complete writing tasks over the next few weeks.

Researchers found that expressive writing helped reduce fatigue, intrusive thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder in breast cancer survivors.