Abstract: Objective: To explore the effects of the expressive writing in patients with laryngeal cancer after total laryngectomy. Methods: A total of 63 patients with laryngeal cancer who underwent radiotherapy in a tertiary hospital in Yinchuan from May 8, 2019 to April 30, 2021 were divided into the control group (31 cases) and the interventional group (32 cases) according to their admission date. Patients in the control group received conventional psychological guidance while patients in the interventional group received the expressive writing intervention besides the conventional psychological guidance. The post-traumatic growth, mental flexibility, and self-efficacy of patients in the two groups before and one month after the intervention were compared. Besides, the participation compliance and writing completion of patients in the interventional group were evaluated. Results: After the intervention, only the score of new possibility dimension of post-traumatic growth were increased in the control group (P<0.05). The scores of post-traumatic growth and all dimensions were increased in the interventional group (P<0.05). The scores of relationship with others, personal strength, and self-transformation dimensions of patients in the interventional group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The total score of the psychological resilience scale and the scores of toughness and self-improvement were all higher than those before the intervention in the interventional group (P<0.05). The total score of psychological resilience and self-improvement dimension scores in the interventional group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The self-efficacy score of patients in the interventional group was (2.31±0.29), which was higher than that of the control group (1.71±0.25) (P<0.001). There were 65.6% of the patients in the interventional group had high compliance with the participation. The completion degree of the communication and writing exposure part is 100.0%, and the completion degree of the pure writing exposure part is 78.1%. Conclusion: Expressive writing intervention can improve post-traumatic growth, mental flexibility, self-efficacy, and promote the psychological and social rehabilitation of the patients with laryngeal cancer after total laryngectomy.

Key words: expressive writing; laryngeal carcinoma; total laryngectomy; intervention