RAPID RESPONSE FROM BMJ.COM

doi:10.1136/bmjusa.01090004

BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmjusa.01090004, (Published 5 September 2002)

Letters

RAPID RESPONSE FROM BMJ.COM

As of August 19, four rapid responses had been posted on bmj.com in response to the paper by Schilte et al, as well as replies to each from the first author. Below we reproduce an edited version of one of the rapid responses. The original rapid responses and the author's replies may be found at http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/323/7304/86 $---$ EDITOR

Talking to a physician vs writing alone

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This article originally appeared in BMJ USA

EDITOR $---$ On its surface, the study by Schilte et al suggests that disclosure of emotional events has no effect on markers ofphysical health or health-related behaviors $---$ a finding at oddswith dozens of published studies during the past few years. ¹ ² A critical difference between the study by Schilte et al and mostother disclosure studies is that Schilte et al required participantsto talk about a traumatic experience to another person. Most successfuldisclosure studies, on the other hand, have had participants writeanonymously about a trauma for several days either in a laboratory,a neutral setting, or athome.

The Schilte study may help us learn when disclosure can be helpful or harmful. It may also speak to recent controversies surroundingcritical incident stress debriefing (CISD), in which recentlytraumatized individuals are pressed to talk about their emotionsto people . . . [Full text of this article]