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The Effects of Expressive Writing on Adjustment to HIV

  • Intervention Research
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Previous research suggests that writing about stressful experiences results in better health and psychological well-being. In the present study, a multi-ethnic sample of 79 HIV-positive women and men participated in a structured interview, and wrote about either their deepest thoughts and feelings about living with HIV (expressive writing) or their activities in the last 24 hr (control). Sixty-two participants returned for the 2-month follow-up and 50 returned for the 6-month follow-up interview. Oral fluid samples of beta2-microglobulin were taken at the baseline and follow-up assessments to examine the immunological effects of writing. No effects of writing condition were found, but expressive writing participants who included increasing insight/causation and social words in their writing had better immune function and reported more positive changes at follow-up. Results suggest that cognitive processing and changes in social interactions may be critical to the benefits of writing.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by a seed grant from the UCLA AIDS Institute University AIDS Research Program (UARP) awarded to the first author (444040-MY-18012). who was also supported by NIMH training grant MH19127 to Oscar Grusky during some phases of the project. The authors wish to acknowledge James Pennebaker for his text analysis program, Honghu Liu for statistical consultation, Najib Aziz for B2-M specimen analysis, and SoYeon Karen Chung, Julia Bande, Jenny Tan, Elizabeth Robles, and Naomi Bitow for assistance with data collection, entry, and coding. Finally, the authors wish to acknowledge all the research participants who shared their experiences and stories. Without them this research would not be possible

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Inna D. Rivkin, Julie Gustafson & Dorothy Chin

  2. Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Ilene Weingarten

  3. Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 760 Westwood Plaza, Ste C8-871D, Los Angeles, CA, 90024-1759, USA

    Inna D. Rivkin

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  1. Inna D. Rivkin
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  2. Julie Gustafson
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Correspondence to Inna D. Rivkin.

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Rivkin, I.D., Gustafson, J., Weingarten, I. et al. The Effects of Expressive Writing on Adjustment to HIV. AIDS Behav 10, 13–26 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-005-9051-9

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