AIM's Writing for Healing: A Workshop for Individuals Living With Paralysis
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- This is an observational study: the protocol does not assign a study treatment.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Spinal Cord Injuries, Multiple Sclerosis, Transverse Myelitis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Overview
The UAB Institute for Arts In Medicine (AIM) is currently implementing an expressive emotional writing pilot project for adults with paralysis caused by neurological conditions such as traumatic head or spinal cord injury.
Detailed description
Because of the inability to move certain parts of the body, persons with paralysis caused by neurological conditions such as spinal cord injury, traumatic head injury, and stroke experience grief from the loss of physical capacity, social or occupational role function, and life goals. Common complications associated with grief in these individuals include increased anxiety and depression, poor physical health, and low sense of purpose in life. Therefore, it is essential to identify community-based, self-help support that can serve as a step to facilitate healthy grieving in these individuals. Such support should aim at shifting their mindset from focusing on their loss (disability) to restoring daily function. Constructing and reconstructing the story of one's own life has been reported in several autobiographic accounts as a coping strategy to learn acceptance and how to live with various traumatic conditions (i.e., grief resolution).
Writing about emotionally traumatic or challenging experiences has been shown to have a surprisingly beneficial effect on reports of symptom reduction and health care use, as well as improvements in health status and well-being in people with chronic conditions. Expressive emotional writing programs have demonstrated the ability to improve the quality of life of individuals with chronic conditions. Although expressive writing could be a promising avenue in reducing grief and improving psychosocial and physical functioning among adults with paralysis, currently, few programs on expressive emotional writing are available for these individuals. Therefore, the UAB Institute for Arts in Medicine (AIM) will implement an innovative expressive emotional writing pilot project for adults with paralysis.
To maximize the number of adults with paralysis who can benefit from participating in this expressive emotional writing program, the investigators will partner with two additional organizations -the Is-Able Center and the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama. The Is-Able Center (https://isable.org/) is a non-profit community organization which provides services including grief support that encourage, educate and empower the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. The Lakeshore Foundation (https://www.lakeshore.org/) is also a non-profit community organization that serves and advocates for people with physical disabilities.
The writing program will take place at both the Is-Able Center and Lakeshore Foundation starting in July 2020. The program will run for 10 consecutive weeks, with weekly writing activities. The grant funds will be used to reimburse mileage for adults with paralysis for participation in the writing program, hire a program coordinator, and two coaches to facilitate the writing program and facilitate discussion conducted in each of the two community organizations.
Primary outcome measures
- The Grief and Loss Scale [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Emotional Distress - Depression [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Perceived Stress Scale [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Impact of Events Scale [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Meaning and Purpose [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Conditions - Managing Emotions [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Sleep Disturbance [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Sleep Impact [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Ability to Participate in Social Roles and Activities [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
- Satisfaction with Social Roles and Activities [Time frame: 11 Weeks]
Secondary outcome measures (4)
- Cortisol level [Time frame: 11 weeks]
- Quality of Life During Serious Illness - Family Carers [Time frame: 11 weeks]
- Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) [Time frame: 11 weeks]
- Caregiver Burden Inventory [Time frame: 11 weeks]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Age 18 or older with paralysis living in the community
- limb paralysis resulting from a traumatic event/accident or neurological disease (e.g., spinal cord injury, head injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Transverse myelitis, poliomyelitis, peripheral neuropathy, Parkinson's disease, ALS, botulism, and Guillain-Barré syndrome etc) happened after childhood
- a non-traumatic spinal cord injury may be caused by arthritis, cancer, inflammation, infections or disk degeneration of the spine
- caregivers of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- able to communicate verbally or through writing
Exclusion criteria
- known maladaptive behavioral patterns, exhibition of overt psychotic symptoms (e.g., presence of hallucinations, delusions, or thought disorders)
- congenital (e.g., spinal bifida, cerebral palsy)
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- 354 School of Health Professions Building — Birmingham
Publications
- Xie SM, McKenna M, Veach K, Williams S, Jones MG, Vander Kamp E, Green S, Edwards L, Kirklin K, Jones BA, Yuen HK. Assessing the Psychosocial Impact of Expressive Writing on Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: Qualitative Study. JMIR Form Res. 2025 Jun 30;9:e71162. doi: 10.2196/71162. PMID 40587781
- Yuen HK, Kamp EV, Green S, Edwards L, Kirklin K, Hanebrink S, Klebine P, Han A, Chen Y. Effects of a coach-guided video-conferencing expressive writing program on facilitating grief resolution in adults with SCI. J Spinal Cord Med. 2024 Nov;47(6):1016-1025. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2023.2253390. Epub 2023 Sep 8. PMID 37682297
Identifiers
NCT: NCT04721717 · IRB- 300005546