The Effect of Written Emotional Disclosure on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress of Patients after Open Heart Surgery

Abstract

Background and Aim: So far, several strategies have been used to reduce and minimize the stress and anxiety of patients admitted in open heart surgery. Writing about the most important and traumatic experiences of life can improve the physical and emotional health state of patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of written emotional disclosure on depression, anxiety, and stress in hospitalized patients after open heart surgery.

Methods: This study was an experimental study with two groups and two control groups before and after the intervention. A total of 100 patients admitted in the open heart surgery department of Amiralmomenin-e-Kordkuy Hospital (2018) were assigned in the form of random numbers to four groups of emotional disclosure of negative, positive, neutral and non-interventional. The groups exhibited 10-15 minutes of emotional disclosure written in four periods for one week. Data were collected by the DASS21 questionnaire before, one week and one month after the intervention by the groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 22 and descriptive and inferential tests (repeated variance analysis and one way ANOVA). The significance level was considered as P<0.05.

Results: The severity of stress, anxiety and depression in the two groups of test and control before and after the intervention using  ANOVA repeated measure showed significant difference (P=0.0001), (P=0.0001), (P=0.0001) (P=0.0001), respectively. But there was no significant difference between the two groups before and after the intervention (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Written emotional disclosure reduces depression, anxiety and stress in patients after open heart surgery.