Impact of therapeutic writing on quality of life and psychological distress in patients with vitiligo

Background:
In this clinical trial, we examined whether or not expressive writing as a psychological
intervention reduces psychological distress in vitiligo patients receiving phototherapy.
Methods:
A total of 139 adult vitiligo patients were asked to complete the GHQ-28 in order
to identify their psychiatric disturbances. The GHQ-28 scores showed that 78 patients (56.5%)
had psychiatric distress. They were later enrolled in this randomized controlled trial conducted
during June 2009 until Dec. 2009 at Razi Hospital in Tehran. Patients were randomly divided
into 2 groups. Group A underwent the routine treatment protocol. Group B did the same, but they
were also instructed to practice ‘expressive writing’. The intervention continued 4 weeks. After 4
weeks, patients in both groups were re-evaluated using the GHQ-28.
Results:
The overall GHQ-28 scores and sub-scores were significantly reduced in both groups A
(47.9+/-11.71, P=0.000) and B (48.94+/-10.69, P=0.000) after 4 weeks of intervention. However,
no statistically significance difference was found between the two groups in terms of their overall
scores (P=0.7) and their sub-scores.
Conclusion:
The effect of expressive writing on reducing psychological distress in patients with
vitiligo remains equivocal. Nonetheless, further studies with larger sample sizes and of longer
duration especially in non-western cultural contexts are recommended