Writing may ease stress of cancer.

Encouraging patients with cancer to write down their fears about the disease may improve their quality of life, according to a new study.

Researchers approached 71 patients waiting in a clinic at a cancer center to take part in an expressive writing exercise lasting 20 minutes. The exercise posed questions to patients with leukemia or lymphoma about how the cancer had changed them and how they felt about those changes. The participants completed a baseline assessment, the 20-minute writing task, post-writing assessment, and a three-week follow-up (88% completed the writing task, and 56% completed the follow-up).

When those taking part were contacted again a few weeks later, 49% said that the writing had changed their thoughts about their illness, whereas 38% said that their feelings toward their situation had changed. Reports of changes in thoughts about illness immediately after writing were significantly associated with better physical quality of life at follow-up, controlling for baseline quality of life.

Morgan, N.P., Graves, K.D., Poggi, E.A., & Cheson, B.D. (2008). Implementing an expressive writing study in a cancer clinic. Oncologist, 13(2), 196-204.