Emotional, Biological, and Cognitive Impact of a Brief Expressive Writing Intervention for African American Women at Familial Breast Cancer; Annual rept. 1 Jun 2006-31 May 2007

摘要

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.