Empirical foundations for writing in prevention and psychotherapy: Mental and physical health outcomes

The use of writing, alone or in conjunction with traditional psychotherapy, has increased substantially in recent years. The most widespread use of wr iting has been for single-shot ad hoc purposes or to log behavior. The purp ose of this review is to summarize a decade of research demonstrating the e fficacy of writing about past traumatic experiences on mental and physical health outcomes. It is widely acknowledged in our culture that putting upse tting experiences into words can be healthy. Research from several domains indicates that talking with friends, confiding to a therapist, paying and e ven writing about one's thoughts and feelings can be physically and mentall y beneficial. This review highlights advances in written disclosure that de termine some therapeutic outcomes. In addition, we attempt to explore the m echanisms that predict improved psychological and physical health. Finally, limitations of previous studies are highlighted, and suggestions for futur e research and application are made. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.