Citation

Holmes D, Alpers GW, Ismailji T, Classen C, Wales T, Cheasty V, Miller A, Koopman C. Violence Against Women 2007; 13(11): 1192-1205.

Affiliation

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077801207307801

PMID

17951592

Abstract

This study examined relationships between cognitive and emotional processing with changes in pain and depression among intimate partner violence survivors. Twenty-five women who wrote about their most traumatic experiences completed measures of pain and depressive symptoms before the first writing session and again 4 months following the last writing session. Reduced pain was significantly associated with less use of positive and negative emotion words. Relationships between cognitive and emotional aspects of writing with changes in depressive symptoms fell short of statistical significance. The results suggest that emotional processing in narrative writing predicts changes in pain in intimate partner violence survivors.

Language: en