The Effect of Expressive Writing on Psychological Distress in Patients With Vitiligo: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: in this clinical trial, we examined whether or not expressive writing as a psychological intervention reduces psychological distress in vitiligo patients receiving phototherapy. methods: a total of 139 adult vitiligo patients were asked to complete the ghq-28 in order to identify their psychiatric disturbances. the ghq-28 scores showed that 78 patients (56.5%) had psychiatric distress. they were later enrolled in this randomized controlled clinical trial conducted during june 2009 until dec. 2009 at razi hospital in tehran. patients were randomly divided into 2 groups. group a underwent the routine treatment protocol. group b did the same, but they were also instructed to practice ‘expressive writing’. the intervention continued 4 weeks. after 4 weeks, patients in both groups were re-evaluated using the ghq-28. results: the overall ghq-28 scores and sub-scores were significantly reduced in both groups a (47.9+/-11.71, p=0.000) and b (48.94+/-10.69, p=0.000) after 4 weeks of intervention. however, no statistically significance difference was found between the two groups in terms of their overall scores (p=0.7) and their sub-scores. conclusion: the effect of expressive writing on reducing psychological distress in patients with vitiligo remains equivocal. nonetheless, further studies with larger sample sizes and of longer duration especially in non-western cultural contexts are recommended.