Characteristics of the included studies
| Reference (year) | Sample | Disease | Race | Mean age (SD) | Type of study | Dependent variables | Intervention methods | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cepeda et al20 (2008) | 234 patients | Cancer | NR | 48.5 (12.4) | Randomised trial | Pain and well-being perception | 20 min narrative session one time per week for 3 weeks | Pain 0–10 scale and well-being Likert scale |
| Cotichelli25 (2012) | 2 caregivers | Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (rare) | NR | NR | Case study | Perception of sociorelational quality of service | NO | Analysis of categories emerged in narratives |
| Di Gangi et al26 (2013) | 332 caregivers; 258 patients | NR (intensive care unit) | NR | NR | Retrospective observational | Patients’ and caregivers’ lives information derived from diary guest books | NO | Cluster analysis with the software R Word Cloud 2.0 package |
| Donzelli et al27 (2015) | 3 patients | Pregnant after liver transplantation | NR | NR | Exploratory | Role of narrative medicine in facing illness experience | NO | Narrative analysis of the collected text |
| Esquibel and Borkan28 (2014) | 21 patients | NR | NR | NR | Exploratory | Chronic non-cancer pain | NO | Thematic analysis of in depth narrative interview |
| Greenhalgh et al21 (2005) | NR | Diabetes | Asian | NR | Action-research | Learning on diabetes disease and change in behaviour | Storytelling groups with patients on their experiences of disease | Observation of patients behaviour |
| Massimo and Zarri22 (2006) | 50 patients | Paediatric leukaemia or cancer | 8 (NR) | Children's perception of the disease | Drawing therapy in hospital | Observation of children's behaviour | ||
| Michalak et al23 (2014) | 80 patients | Mental illness (bipolar disorder) | Caucasian (83% of participants) | 42.4 (12.2) | Mixed methods design (prospective, longitudinal) | Perception of Internalised stigma | Theatre class and performance.6 weeks of 4-hour meetings, 3–4 times per week | 1. Day's Mental Illness Stigma Scale; 2. Internalised Stigma of Mental Illness Scale; 3. Theatric performance evaluation |
| Smorti and Smorti29 (2013) | 30 patients | Fertility problems/assisted reproduction treatment | Caucasian | 37 (4.3) | Exploratory | Couple's psychological problems due to pregnancy via ART | NO | Narrative analysis of common threads and phases of the parenthood transition |
| Wise et al24 (2009) | 11 patients | Cancer | Caucasian | 67 (NR) | Exploratory | Benefit from autobiographical storytelling |
| In depth interview focused on patients’ experience with the intervention |
ART, assisted reproduction treatment; NR, not reported.