Expressive writing and linguistic analysis in women undergoing fertility treatment: an exploratory study on the possible association with medical outcome

Background: Expressive Writing Intervention (EWI) asks people to write about a difficult experience, such as infertility, to help them to elaborate and cope with the emotional impact of the stressful event. Through the application of Bucci’s referential process (RP) linguistic measures to infertile women’s narratives, the general aim of the present study was to explore possible differences in linguistic aspects of RP relative to assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment outcomes. Method: Thirty-five women underwent three sessions of EWI during ART treatment, writing for each time about their thoughts and feelings related to the event that they were experiencing. Afterwards, women were divided into two groups: ART positive outcome (n=10) and ART negative outcome (n=25). Results: Differences within groups were evaluated, and in the negative outcome group a significant reduction in Italian Weighted Reflection and Reorganization List scores during writing sessions emerged, thus indicating a reduction in the abilities of reflecting on the experience. From the post-hoc test with Holm’s correction, the significant differences emerged between time 1 and time 3 (t=3.02; p=.01; Cohen’s d= 0.69). As regards between groups differences, ART positive outcome group showed lower scores in Italian Sensory Somatic Dictionary than ART negative outcome group (p=.04) in the third writing session. Conclusion: In conclusion, these preliminary findings based on the analysis of EWI narratives identifies the activation of different affective and defensive processes in relation to the different ART outcome.