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

• Sponsor: University of Toronto (Other)
• Overall Status: Unknown status
• CT.gov ID: NCT00303147
• Collaborator: Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care (Other)
• Enrollment: 120
• Location: 1
• Duration (Months): 26
• Patients Per Site Per Month: 4.6

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

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

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Stress, Psychological; Anxiety	Behavioral: Expressive Writing	Phase 1

Detailed Description

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 Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)
• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Study Start Date: May 1, 2003
• Study Completion Date: Jul 1, 2005

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

1. General Health Questionnaire []

2. Impact of Events Scale []

3. Zarit Burden Interview (short form) []

4. California Verbal Learning Test []

5. Ruff 2 & 7 Selective Attention Test []

6. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) []

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years and Older
• Sexes Eligible for Study: All
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

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

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	University of Toronto	Toronto	Ontario	Canada	M5S 1V6

Sponsors and Collaborators

• University of Toronto
• Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: Corey S Mackenzie, Ph.D., University of Toronto
• Principal Investigator: Lynn Hasher, Ph.D., University of Toronto
• Principal Investigator: David Goldstein, Ph.D., University of Toronto

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00303147
• Other Study ID Numbers: 11438
• First Posted: Mar 15, 2006
• Last Update Posted: Mar 15, 2006
• Last Verified: Mar 1, 2006

• Keywords provided by , ,: Expressive Writing; Written Emotional Expression; Caregiver Stress; Cognition
• Additional relevant MeSH terms: Stress, Psychological

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Mar 15, 2006