Writing About Experiences and Health in Older Adults

March 16, 2026 updated by: Naomi Eisenberger, University of California, Los Angeles

UCLA researchers looking for healthy females (age 60+) to participate in a study investigating how writing about your experiences may be related to your health.

Once a week for 6 weeks, participants will write about their experiences and fill out online questionnaires. Participants will also come to the UCLA campus for blood draws and to fill out questionnaires 3 times: once prior to the 6-week writing period, once immediately after the 6-week period, and once 2-months after the writing period.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

78

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
    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States
        • UCLA Clinical & Translational Research Center (CTRC)

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

60 years to 100 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Healthy adults 60 years and older

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Following a structured telephone interview, participants with the following conditions will not be able to participate:

    1. current smokers
    2. active, uncontrolled medical disorders
    3. chronic infection (e.g., Hepatitis C, HIV)
    4. use of certain medications (e.g., hypnotic and psychotropic medication, steroid use, opioid use)
    5. psychiatric disorders (e.g., current major depression, bipolar disorder)
    6. body mass index (BMI) greater than 35

Other exclusion criteria may apply.

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Writing: Group 1
Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives.
Behavioral: Writing: Group 1
Writing about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives, once a week for 6 weeks.
Placebo Comparator: Writing: Group 2
Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar places in their lives.
Other: Writing: Group 2
Writing about experiences with familiar places, once a week for 6 weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Inflammatory activity
Time Frame: baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period
Changes in proinflammatory cytokine and proinflammatory gene expression from blood draws
baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period
Health and well-being (self-report)
Time Frame: baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period
Changes in self-report measures of health (e.g., pain, sleep) and well-being (e.g., social support, depression)
baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles

Collaborators

National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Naomi I. Eisenberger, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
  • Principal Investigator: Mona Moieni, M.A., University of California, Los Angeles

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

October 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 10, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 12, 2015

First Posted (Estimated)

June 15, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 18, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 16, 2026

Last Verified

March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • GEN
  • F31AG048668 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • UL1TR000124 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • R03AG049254 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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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