Expressive Writing for Co-Occurring Depression and Alcohol Misuse

January 26, 2015 updated by: Carrie Dodrill, Baylor College of Medicine

***Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. Further, this study is only enrolling people who are clients at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., in Houston.

The hypothesis is that writing about feelings and thoughts will help people who are in group treatment feel less depressed and abuse alcohol less.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Expressive writing applied to a variety of populations (e.g., HIV, cancer, PTSD, depression) has been associated with health improvements, reductions in symptoms of emotional distress, and one preliminary study found reductions in alcohol misuse among college students. Data suggest that expressive writing is a technique to facilitate emotional processing that can influence a number of clinical outcomes by facilitating cognitive restructuring (Hunt, 1998; Pennebaker, 2004). In addition to examining cognitive content change following expressive writing, we believe the effects of emotional writing on mood and drinking may involve two additional processes that have been found significant for both depression and alcohol misuse, namely experiential avoidance and ruminative thinking. We hypothesize that expressive writing will lead to less drinking and enhanced mood by reducing: (1) negative thought content, (2) experiential avoidance of unpleasant private events (e.g., negative thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations), and (3) ruminative thinking.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

89

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Houston, Texas, United States, 77004
        • Career and Recovery Resources, Inc.

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

***Please note that this study does not offer comprehensive treatment program for alcohol abuse or depression. Please do not contact the study staff if you are seeking psychological treatment. Further, this study is only enrolling people who are clients at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc., in Houston.

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Enrolled in group therapy program at Career and Recovery Resources, Inc.
  • Must be at least 18.
  • Willing and able to participate in the study through the one month follow up.
  • Able to provide the contact information of at least two people who can generally locate their whereabouts.
  • Speak English fluently.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to read, write, speak English.
  • History of bipolar or psychotic disorders.
  • Severe medical, cognitive and /or psychiatric impairment that precludes cooperation with study protocol.
  • Substance withdrawal symptoms requiring medical attention.
  • Currently receiving other individual psychosocial therapy outside of C&R for substance abuse or other psychiatric conditions with the exception of AA, NA or CA.
  • Impending incarceration or other factor that would create inability or unwillingness to participate in the 6 week long study period (e.g., halfway house or other aftercare program restrictions).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Expressive Writing
In addition to attending group therapy as usual, participants write about their feelings about an issue of their choosing three times during a two week period for at least 20 minutes each time.
Behavioral: Expressive writing (in addition to group therapy as usual).
Participants in the expressive writing condition write about their feelings about an issue of their choosing three times, for at least 20 minutes each time, during a two week period.
Active Comparator: Treatment as Usual
Participants attend group therapy as usual only.
Behavioral: Expressive writing (in addition to group therapy as usual).
Participants in the expressive writing condition write about their feelings about an issue of their choosing three times, for at least 20 minutes each time, during a two week period.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition
Time Frame: Baseline, Post-writing (2 weeks post-baseline), and One Month Follow-Up (Six weeks post-baseline)
Baseline, Post-writing (2 weeks post-baseline), and One Month Follow-Up (Six weeks post-baseline)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Number of Alcoholic Drinks Consumed
Time Frame: 30 days pre-baseline compared to 30 days post-intervention
30 days pre-baseline compared to 30 days post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Baylor College of Medicine

Collaborators

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Carrie L Dodrill, Ph.D., The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston- ** This contact information should not be used for counseling or informational purposes**
  • Study Chair: Angela L Stotts, Ph.D., The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston- ** This contact information should not be used for counseling or informational purposes**

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 6, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 6, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

January 8, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 27, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2015

Last Verified

January 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1R03AA016819-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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