Chinese American breast cancer survivors (n = 136) completed an expressive writing intervention. Their PTSD symptoms were assessed at baseline, 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups.
Using cross-lagged panel analysis, the model with hyperarousal symptoms at each assessment wave predicting the subsequent severity of avoidance and reexperiencing symptoms indicated the best fit, χ2(52) = 65.422, p = .100; CFI = 0.990, RMSEA = 0.044, 95% CI [0.000, 0.074].
The results suggest that hyperarousal symptoms predict the subsequent severity of reexperiencing and avoidance symptoms over time during and after the expressive writing intervention. The findings highlight the importance of early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of hyperarousal symptoms in enhancing the efficacy of PTSD interventions and reducing the chronicity in PTSD among Chinese American breast cancer survivors. Clinical Trial Registration atClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02946619.