en عمومى General پژوهشي Research <p><b>Objective:</b> In this clinical trial, we examined whether or not expressive writing as a psychological intervention reduces psychological distress in vitiligo patients receiving phototherapy.&nbsp;</p> <div><b>Method:</b> A total of 139 adult vitiligo patients were asked to complete the GHQ-28 in order to identify their psychiatric disturbances. The GHQ-28 scores showed that 78 patients (56.5%) had psychiatric distress. They were later enrolled in this randomized controlled trial conducted during June 2009 until Dec 2009 at Razi Hospital in Tehran. Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups. Group A underwent the routine treatment protocol. Group B did the same, but they were also instructed to practice &lsquo;expressive writing&rsquo;. The intervention continued 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, patients in both groups were re-evaluated using the GHQ-28.&nbsp;</div> <div><b>Results:</b> The overall GHQ-28 scores and sub-scores were significantly reduced in both groups A (47.9+/-11.71, P = 0.000) and B (48.94+/-10.69, P = 0.000) after 4 weeks of intervention. However, no statistically significance difference was found between the two groups in terms of their overall scores (P = 0.7) and their sub-scores.&nbsp;</div> <div><b>Conclusion:</b> The effect of expressive writing on reducing psychological distress in patients with vitiligo remains equivocal. Nonetheless, further studies with larger sample sizes and of longer duration especially in non-western cultural contexts are recommended.</div> vitiligo, psychological distress, expressive writing 3 8 http://jccnc.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Leili Borimnejad 10031947532846002770 10031947532846002770 Yes Center for Nursing Care Research, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Alireza firooz 10031947532846002771 10031947532846002771 No Tehran University of Medical Sciences Hosein Mortazavi 10031947532846002772 10031947532846002772 No Tehran University of Medical Sciences Nessa Aghazadeh 10031947532846002773 10031947532846002773 No Tehran University of Medical Sciences Zahra Halaji 10031947532846002774 10031947532846002774 No Tehran University of Medical Sciences