Emotional, Biological, and Cognitive Impact of a Brief Expressive Writing Intervention for Women at Familial Breast Cancer Risk

Abstract

Women at familial breast cancer risk have highly inflated perceptions of their risk of developing the disease high levels of cancer-specific distress and lower levels of natural killer cell activity (NKCA) than women without familial breast cancer risk. The proposed study will examine the impact of an expressive writing intervention on emotional biological and cognitive processes among women at familial breast cancer risk. This intervention has been shown to have positive effects on emotional outcomes (e.g. decreased distress) biological outcomes (e.g. increased NKCA) and cognitive outcomes (e.g. increased working memory) in individuals writing about a variety of life stressors including minor stressors and major trauma. We propose a randomized controlled trial examining the effects of expressive writing intervention on emotional biological and cognitive functions in healthy women at familial breast cancer risk.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA484805

Entities

People

  • Heiddis Valdimarsdottir

Organizations

  • Mount Sinai Hospital

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • African Americans
  • Biomedical Research
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cells
  • Cognition
  • Counseling
  • Department Of Defense
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Electronic Mail
  • Information Operations
  • Intervention
  • Lymphocytes
  • Neoplasms
  • New York
  • Perception
  • Risk Factors

Readers

  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.
  • Women's Health and Cancer Risk Research: African American Women and Pregnancy Outcomes.