Centre for Policy on Ageing



One year follow-up of an emotional expression intervention for bereaved older adults
Author(s)	Daniel L Segal, Carla Chatman, Jay A Bogaards
Journal title	Journal of Mental Health and Aging, vol 7, no 4, Winter 2001
Pages	pp 465-472
Keywords	Bereavement ; Spouses ; Depression ; Psychiatric treatment ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America.
Annotation	In an initial study by the authors, 30 bereaved older Americans verbally disclosed their thoughts and feelings about the death of their spouse in four 20-minute sessions according to the Pennebaker (1985) disclosure paradigm, with significant therapeutic effects at 1-month follow-up. For the 20 subjects who completed a 1-year follow-up, their initial decrease in intensive thoughts was maintained. Total distress (on the Impact of Event Scale) decreased from pre-test and from post-treatment to 1-year follow-up. Negative thoughts showed no changes across the initial three periods, but significantly declined at one year. There were no treatment effects regarding depression, hopelessness or avoidance. The study suggests that this intervention's therapeutic effects remain strong at one year, and that reduction in negative cognitions may be a particularly strong therapeutic factor for emotional improvement in bereaved older people. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020416208 A
Classmark	DW: SN: ENR: LP: 3J: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.