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Quad City Times, July 2006
“Writing Project Helps Chronically Ill Patients Deal with Pain, ‘Find Moments of Closure"
Three participants share their experiences and writing
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The Daily Iowan, February 2006
"Giving Some Voice To Those Who Suffer"
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University of Iowa News Release, January 2006
"Grant Will Support UI Patient Voice Project"
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Iowa Alumni Magazine, April 2005
"Healing Words"
Profile of Patient Voice Project creator Austin Bunn
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Iowa City Press Citizen, March 2005
"Woman On Winding Journey"
Profile of Stephanie Callan, Patient Voice participant
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University of Iowa News Release, January 2005
"Writers Will Work With Chronically Ill Patients In Arts Share Project"
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 University of Iowa Hospitals Compass Newsletter, March 2005
"Writers to Work with Chronically Ill Patients"
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Esterling BA, Antoni MH, Fletcher MA, Margulies S, Schneiderman N. Emotional disclosure through writing or speaking modulates latent Epstein-Barr virus antibody titers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1994 Feb;62(1):130-140. (PMID: 8034815)*

Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Glaser R. Psychoneuroimmunology and health consequences: data and shared mechanisms. Psychosomatic Medicine 1995 May-Jun;57(3):269-274. (PMID: 7652127)

Pennebaker JW, Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Glaser R. Disclosure of traumas and immune function: health implications for psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1988 Apr;56(2):239-245. (PMID: 3372832)

Rivkin ID, Gustafson J, Weingarten I, Chin D. The Effects of Expressive Writing on Adjustments to HIV. AIDS and Behavior 2006 Jan 19;:1-14. (PMID: 16421649)

Smyth JM, Stone AA, Hurewitz A, Kaell A. Effects of writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Association 1999 Apr 14;281(14):1304-1309. (PMID: 11129366)

Stone AA, Smyth JM, Kaell A, Hurewitz A. Structured writing about stressful events: exploring potential psychological mediators of positive health effects. Heath Psychology 2000 Nov;19(6):619-624. (PMID: 11129366)

*PMID refers to the PubMed index for MEDLINE

Radio Iowa - 1/31/06

Program has patients write about their illness
by Stella Shaffer

A new program at the University of Iowa will feature a very special kind of writing class, for patients who are seriously ill. Austin Bunn is a grad student in the prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop who'll run "The Patient Voice," helping people with illness and chronic pain tell their stories. He says often they're struggling to tell what he calls a "broken story." He says it's easy to understand if you've ever been ill or had a family member who was seriously sick -- there's a beginning, when a doctor makes the diagnosis or you have the first symptoms, and then "there's this crazy ocean of middle," he says, including treatment and the progress of the disease or some improvement...but he says there's never an ending. The story goes on, and he says just as it's hard to listen to someone talk about illness, trying to write the story is a struggle to give it some shape. Bunn knows it from personal experience, as his mother has Parkinson's Disease. He's seen her struggle trying to tell the stories of what she's going through, because while there are new developments, there's no sense of achieving an ending, closure or peacefulness about what's happening to her. He had a couple reasons for creating this writing program for patients and seeking grants to fund it. Biologically, he says there's some evidence that just writing about the experience of illness helps the immune system and can improve a patient's T-cell level, and decrease their amount of a stress hormone called Cortisol. He hopes people in the program enjoy some of those physical benefits. The second part of the program he calls a "kind of feedback loop." In addition to the writing progress which he hopes is a good experience with a "moment of reflectiveness," the works of those taking part in "The Patient Voice" will be published. He hopes the anthology will give feedback to the people who give them care, and help their doctors and nurses understand what it's like to be chronically ill. He says the program's been created at a time when attitudes about healthcare are changing, and it may be valuable to that new vision. He says there's a sense that doctors need to listen better, and the medical community should give patients a stronger role in their own care. The program's come along at a good time, Bunn says, with medicine looking at treating not just the body or the illness, but treating the whole person. It's part of the University of Iowa 's "Arts Share" program that offers music, performance and arts to schools and makes the resources of the University available to schools and communities.

Patient Voice Suggested Reading

Here's a collection of Patient Voice Project tested readings. Many are illness-related, but not all.

Nonfiction

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Chapter 1 of Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard

"Witness" by Andre Dubus, from Meditations from a Moveable Chair

Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution edited by Lee Gutkind

Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives edited by Lee Gutkind

The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde

"The Patient Examines The Doctor" by Anatole Broyard, from Intoxicated by My Illness

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

Poetry

"Do Not Be Ashamed" by Wendell Berry 

Winter Numbers by Marilyn Hacker

Otherwise by Jane Kenyon

Book of My Nights by Li-Young Lee

Her Soul beneath the Bone: Women's Poetry on Breast Cancer edited by Leatrice Lifshitz

The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance by Audre Lorde

The Wellspring by Sharon Olds

"Diving into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich, from Diving into the Wreck

"Listen" by W. S. Merwin

Fiction

"People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in the Peed Onk" by Lorrie Moore, from Birds of America

"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried" by Amy Hempl, from Reasons to Live

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