Effect of creative writing on mood in cancer patients.

Abstract

178 Background: Patients with cancer may have significant mental health comorbidity. Creative writing has a substantial history in providing a wide range of psychological benefits for cancer patients. Methods: We conducted a pilot study to determine feasibility whether cancer patients can be enrolled, randomized and retained for four weeks for creative writing classes (Feasibility was defined as 50% of our enrolled patients on intervention arm (IA) could attend at least 2 classes). We anticipated enrolling 45 patients over the period of 2 months with randomization into 2 arms: IA and standard of care (SOC). “Write from the Heart”, a series of creative writing workshops (CWW) were conducted on IA. Subjects in IA had four, 2-hour weekly CWW whereas SOC arm did not receive any sessions. We used validated Emotional Thermometer Scales (ETS), ranging from 0 (best)-10 (worst), to predict changes in parameters reflecting patient’s mental health pre and post intervention. ETS has five dimensions (distress, anxiety, depression, anger and need help), which are all continuous variables. Results: Total of 16 patients were accrued -11 in IA and 5 in SOC. 7 out of 11 (63%) patients enrolled in IA attended at least 75% of classes. Comparisons were made using two-sample T-tests. Although sample size was small, analysis showed intriguing results. IA did show a decreasing pattern on Total Emotion Score (TES). For each visit, post-class scores were lower than pre-class scores. SOC versus IA and IA intragroup analysis (Paired T-test) did not reveal any statistical significance. Conclusions: We observed that it is feasible for cancer patients to attend focused workshops geared towards mental health wellbeing. Although not statistically significant, IA showed trend towards mood improvement. A second study is planned with a single arm for all cancer patients. In addition to using emotional thermometers, we will include questionnaires to evaluate mental health symptoms effectively. Further prospective clinical studies should be conducted to evaluate effect of this intervention in cancer patients. Clinical trial information: Study 00006541. [Table: see text]