Using Human and Computer-Based Text Analysis of Clinical Notes to Understand Military Service Members’ Experiences with Therapeutic Writing

Publication date: Available online 23 October 2018Source: The Arts in PsychotherapyAuthor(s): Bronwen M. Landless, Melissa S. Walker, Girija KaimalAbstractBackgroundTherapeutic writing interventions have been shown to improve both physical health and emotional well-being. This paper examines the usefulness of clinical notes as a data source, and presents two different analyses of individual clinical notes of therapeutic writing group sessions: analysis performed by a person and analysis by a computer-based program (Pennebaker et al., 2015). The therapeutic writing sessions were offered during the second week of treatment at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) as part of an integrative care model for service members (SMs) with traumatic brain injury and underlying psychological conditions to include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).MethodTherapeutic writing sessions were facilitated in the art therapy studio at the NICoE. The sessions were documented in the military healthcare system’s patient record application by the art therapist and art therapy interns at the NICoE. Clinical notes were informed by SM self-report surveys and clinician observations. Notes from May 2012 to 2015 and were pulled and coded manually for emerging themes, then separately analyzed by a computer software text content analysis program (Pennebaker et al., 2015).ResultsOverall, SMs reported more positive than negative, neutral, or mixed emotions during and after the therapeutic wri...
Source: Arts in Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research