October 19, 2001

Contact: Roger Martin, KU Center for Research, (785) 864-7239.

Study: Women who write about their cancer experiences report better health

LAWRENCE -- Writing can tame traumatizing memories. It also can help to recover the soul.

Richard Wright knew that. He said in his autobiography, "Black Boy," that life's meaning became most apparent to him when he was struggling to make meaning out of meaningless suffering.

Now a University of Kansas psychology professor has found that writing can help in even more tangible ways.

A study by professor Annette Stanton shows that women who write about their experiences with breast cancer report better health and have fewer medical appointments for cancer-related problems than women who don't.

Stanton began her study of 90 women by dividing them into three groups.

Women in one group wrote down their deepest thoughts and feelings about the disease. One woman wrote: "Now every little thing has me petrified! Any ache means the cancer is back ¹ but then I worry that if part of my mind still believes the cancer will come back, maybe it will."

Women in a second group wrote only about cancer's positive aspects. One noted, "I knew I had a strong marriage and a wonderful husband. He was very compassionate, understanding and helpful."

Those in a third group kept only a bare-bones chronology of the experience.

Stanton says, "Those who expressed more had fewer appointments with doctors over the next three months than the women who kept only a chronology."

The study has been submitted for publication to the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Stanton has spent her career finding out what helps or hinders people who face medical adversity. The new discovery fits others she and fellow cancer researchers have made.

For example, in her very first study more than a decade ago, Stanton found that women had more trouble adjusting to their cancer if they tried to put thoughts of the disease out of their minds and avoid emotions about it.

Of course, the value of sharing has its limits. Stanton says, "The goal is to communicate about the disease and take an active approach toward it without going into intense rumination."

In a famous study of the relationship of cancer and behavior, Stanford University researcher David Spiegel found that women whose breast cancer had metastasized and who attended a weekly support group, lived twice as long as women who received the same medical care but did not attend a support group.

One woman in Stanton's study wrote, "Writing about my cancer brought out feelings I hadn't dealt with. My understanding of these feelings brought many, many conversations with my husband and close friends, which, in turn, brought out things they were feeling and were afraid to say."

The forging of community from the molten metal of personal anguish was no doubt part of the meaning that Richard Wright believed could come from bad times.