Chronic Disease, Illness Behavior
Conditions
Brief summary
Handling of complex health situations (as defined by multimorbidity) in partnership: communication between romantic partners; subjective illness perception; coping with stressful experiences due to multimorbidity. Intervention : Expressive Writing about subjective illness perception vs. Writing about individual Time-Management Primary Endpoint: subjective Health (e.g. SF 12 questionnaire) Secondary Endpoints: Psychosocial Adjustments (Depression, somatic symptoms, quality of partnership and others)
Detailed description
Coping in complex health situations (as defined by multimorbidity) and the role of relationship processes for psycho-social adaption: The study investigates interpersonal emotion regulation, disclosure, and illness perceptions in couples with a multimorbid patient. The intervention consists in 3 self-applied solitary written disclosure sessions (expressive writing), the control condition are 3 sessions writing about individual time-management (placebo). Primary endpoint: subjective health (SF 12 questionnaire) Secondary endpoint: psychosocial adjustments (depression, positive and negative affect, somatic symptoms, adjustment disorder, marital satisfaction, sleep quality)
Interventions
BEHAVIORALExpressive Writing
The intervention consists in 3 self-applied solitary written disclosure sessions (expressive writing)
Sponsors
University of Zurich
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Age 18 or older * multimorbid condition (two or more chronic medical conditions) * patients living with romantic partner * very good oral and written command in German * written consent for participation by patient and partner
Exclusion criteria
* Pregnancy * Mini Mental State less than 26 * Substance Abuse * Patients in Palliative Situation * Patients isolated due to infectious diseases * Patients participating in other clinical trials within the last 4 weeks before inclusion
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Subjective health (SF-12) | 3 months |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Psychosocial adjustments | 3 months | depression, positive and negative affect, somatic symptoms, adjustment disorder, marital satisfaction, sleep quality |
Countries
Switzerland
Outcome results
None listed