Cognitive and Health Benefits of Expressive Writing for Family Caregivers Under Stress

The purpose of this study is to determine if expressive writing is an effective intervention for reducing stress, enhancing cognition, and improving quality of life for caregivers of older adults with dementia

A significant and growing need exists to support caregivers of older adults with dementia, including methods of support that are easily implemented and targeted at caregivers who can not access multicomponent interventions. The current intervention examines the efficacy of one such approach: expressive writing (EW).

We are examining the efficacy of EW, in terms of its ability to reduce stress, enhance cognition, and improve well-being, by comparing it to two control conditions: objective writing about how caregivers spend their time (time management; TM) and objective writing about non-personal historical events (history writing; HW).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary family caregiver for an older adult with dementia
• Self-reported caregiver stress or burden
• Fluency in written/spoken English

Exclusion Criteria:

• non-family or non-primary caregiver
• existing use of expressive writing / diary