{"title":"Reduction of Pathological Skin-Picking Via Expressive Writing: A Randomized Controlled Trial.","authors":"Carina Schlintl, Anne Schienle","doi":"10.32872/cpe.11215","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Expressive writing (EW: a personal form of writing about emotional distress, without regard to writing conventions) can improve physical and mental health. The present study investigated whether EW can reduce pathological skin-picking. In addition, the effects of two modalities of writing were contrasted with each other: computer vs. paper/pencil.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A total of 132 females with self-reported pathological skin-picking participated in a two-week intervention. They either carried out six EW sessions or wrote about six abstract paintings (control condition), using either paper/pencil or a computer. Before and after each session, participants rated their affective state and the urge to pick their skin via a smartphone application. Questionnaires for assessing skin-picking severity were completed before and after the two-week intervention.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The urge for skin-picking decreased directly after a writing session. The reduction was more pronounced in participants of the EW group, who also experienced reduced tension and increased feelings of relief at the end of a writing session. EW also reduced the severity of focused skin-picking after the two-week intervention. The writing modality had no differential effect on skin-picking symptoms.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study identified beneficial effects of EW on pathological skin-picking. A future study could investigate EW as a potential tool in the context of (online) psychotherapy for skin-picking disorder.</p>","PeriodicalId":34029,"journal":{"name":"Clinical Psychology in Europe","volume":"5 2","pages":"e11215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10508252/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Clinical Psychology in Europe","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.11215","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/6/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Psychology","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Expressive writing (EW: a personal form of writing about emotional distress, without regard to writing conventions) can improve physical and mental health. The present study investigated whether EW can reduce pathological skin-picking. In addition, the effects of two modalities of writing were contrasted with each other: computer vs. paper/pencil.
Method: A total of 132 females with self-reported pathological skin-picking participated in a two-week intervention. They either carried out six EW sessions or wrote about six abstract paintings (control condition), using either paper/pencil or a computer. Before and after each session, participants rated their affective state and the urge to pick their skin via a smartphone application. Questionnaires for assessing skin-picking severity were completed before and after the two-week intervention.
Results: The urge for skin-picking decreased directly after a writing session. The reduction was more pronounced in participants of the EW group, who also experienced reduced tension and increased feelings of relief at the end of a writing session. EW also reduced the severity of focused skin-picking after the two-week intervention. The writing modality had no differential effect on skin-picking symptoms.
Conclusions: This study identified beneficial effects of EW on pathological skin-picking. A future study could investigate EW as a potential tool in the context of (online) psychotherapy for skin-picking disorder.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
