The effectiveness of emotional disclosure intervention on declining stress and Inhibition among psychosomatic patients

Abstract

Introduction:We conducted the present study aimed at reducing stress and inhibition through emotional disclosure with written structure in patients suffering from psychosomatic disorder.Material and Methods:After completing the questionnaires of perceived stress and defense mechanisms, 43 patients with psychosomatic disorder with stress scores of over 21 and repression scores of over 11.5 were selected from patients referring to Emam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to experiment and control groups. After written emotional disclosure, data were collected and analyzed using independent t-test.Results:The findings of the study indicate that written emotional disclosure reduces perceived stress significantly in the experiment group compared to the control group (p<0.05). Moreover, inhibition in the experiment group diminished significantly compared to the control group following the written emotional disclosure intervention (p<0.05).Conclusion:Our findings indicate that although written emotional disclosure is hurtful during performance, it will nevertheless modify and reduce stress in the long run. Furthermore, it reduces inhibition and improves mental and physical health for the patients.

Keywords

• Stress
• Inhibition
• Emotions
• Psychosomatic