1.3. Objectives and Hypotheses
depression, PTSD, depressive
In this randomized trial, we assessed whether an expressive writing intervention with HCWs was effective in mitigating negative mental health outcomes associated with frontline involvement in the recent public health emergency. We also investigated the mechanisms underlying any reductions in symptoms.Specifically, the aims of the study were to (1) evaluate the psychological adjustment, in terms of PTSD and depression symptoms, of Italian HCWs on the front line during the COVID-19 emergency; (2) evaluate the impact of expressive writing on the baseline mental health symptoms of HCWs; (3) verify whether the narratives of an experimental group (EW––expressive writing condition) changed significantly more than those of a control group (NW––neutral writing condition) in terms of the linguistic markers of four trauma-related processes (cognitive elaboration, emotional elaboration, perceived threat to life and self-immersed processing); (4) investigate whether changes in PTSD and depressive symptoms were predicted by changes in the linguistic markers of cognitive elaboration, emotional elaboration, threat of life and self-immersed processing.



