Expressive Writing: Complementary Treatment for Diabetes

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness, kidney failure, and nontraumatic lower extremity amputation in the United States. Conditions such as stress and depression have been shown to worsen diabetic symptoms. Data indicate that expressive writing (an activity during which individuals deal with stressful experiences by writing about them on paper) has beneficial effects on psychological and physiological outcomes. This study will determine whether diabetes patients can benefit from expressive writing. This study will also determine the duration of the benefits and the effectiveness of booster sessions in improving their diabetic symptoms.

Participants will be randomly assigned to engage in expressive writing or neutral writing for 18 months. Participants in the expressive writing group will write about traumatic or stressful events; participants in the neutral writing group will write about neutral topics that do not affect them emotionally. Some participants in the expressive writing group will receive an additional 4 months of booster sessions of expressive writing. All participants will undergo interviews, blood collection, physical exams and complete clinical scales on their disease status, quality of life, and psychological well-being; these assessments will occur at study entry, every 4 months during the study, and at the end of the study.