Changes in Circulating Lymphocyte Numbers Following Emotional Disclosure: Evidence of Buffering?

In order to assess whether disclosure of emotions through writing about upsetting or traumatic events resulted in changes in blood-associated immune variables over time, healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to write about either emotional issues or trivial topics for 4 consecutive days. Circulating lymphocytes and T lymphocyte subsets (CD4 (helper), CD8 (cytotoxic/suppressor)) as well as a variety of standard hematological markers were measured following the writing intervention and compared with baseline values. In two separate studies (N=40 and N=38), there were reproducible significant differences between the emotional disclosure and control writing groups immediately following the intervention in CD4, CD8 and total circulating lymphocyte numbers but not in CD4/CD8 ratios or any other hematological variables. Circulating lymphocyte numbers in the emotional writing group stayed relatively constant over the time-course of the studies, suggesting that the difference between the groups was due to a transient elevation in postwriting blood lymphocyte numbers in the control group. Self-evaluations immediately before and after each writing session confirmed that the intervention was stressful for subjects in the emotional disclosure group but the effects on circulating lymphocytes were not attributable purely to anxiety-related factors. The results extend our previous observation of changes in immune reactivity following a writing intervention and indicate that the group differences are the result of fluctuations over time in the control group but relative stability in the emotional disclosure group. It is conceivable that such ‘buffering’ of temporal immune variation might be influential in the health-promoting effects of emotional disclosure.