Clinical trial · Interventional
Expressive Writing in Improving the Wellbeing or Comforting Capacity of Caregivers of Patients With Cancer
Caring for Caregivers: Increasing Cancer Caregiver Wellbeing and Comforting Sensitivity
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
This randomized clinical trial studies expressive writing in improving the wellbeing or comforting capacity of caregivers of patients with cancer. Expressive writing is a type of intervention that asks people to write about important topics (in this case participants' experience with their spouses'/partners' cancer) and their emotions/feelings surrounding them. Expressive writing, including benefit finding and traumatic disclosure, may be a type of at-home-therapy that caregivers can utilize in an attempt to increase their own wellbeing, offer better comfort to cancer patients, and by association, help cancer patients cope with and manage the cancer experience.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caregiver | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (3)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosocial Support for Caregiver | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Questionnaire Administration | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Sham Intervention | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (3)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Arm I (expressive disclosure)
- description
- Participants complete an anonymous 20 minute writing exercise at home on their computer once per week for 2 weeks (days 2, 9, and 16 for a total of 3 sessions). Participants write about their emotions pertaining to managing and providing care for the cancer patient.
- interventionNames
- Other: Psychosocial Support for Caregiver
- Other: Questionnaire Administration
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Arm II (benefit finding)
- description
- Participants complete an anonymous 20 minute writing exercise at home on their computer once per week for 2 weeks (days 2, 9, and 16 for a total of 3 sessions). Participants write about any benefits that have arisen because of the cancer diagnosis.
- interventionNames
- Other: Psychosocial Support for Caregiver
- Other: Questionnaire Administration
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 19 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Participants must be a spouse or domestic partner of a cancer survivor and will be recruited via the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Database at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) * Participants must have been in their spousal relationship for at least the past 1 year Exclusion Criteria: * If participants are unable to access a computer they will be excluded
References
Publications (2)
- DERIVEDHarvey J, Berndt M. Cancer caregiver reports of post-traumatic growth following spousal hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Anxiety Stress Coping. 2021 Jul;34(4):397-410. doi: 10.1080/10615806.2020.1845432. Epub 2020 Nov 15. PMID 33190518
- DERIVEDHarvey J, Sanders E, Ko L, Manusov V, Yi J. The Impact of Written Emotional Disclosure on Cancer Caregivers' Perceptions of Burden, Stress, and Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Health Commun. 2018 Jul;33(7):824-832. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1315677. Epub 2017 May 3. PMID 28467137