OBJECTIVES A beneficial health effects of emotional writing disclosure (ED) on several chronic diseases has been described. The aim of this staudy was to investigate the effects of two different ED techniques on disease severity and quality of life (QoL) in psoriatic patients treated with UVB therapy. METHODS Forty patients with psoriasis (mean age 45± 18 years) were randomly assigned to two different ED treatments (according to Pennebaker [PW] writing about stressful events, or according to King [KW], writing about major life goals), or to a control group (CG). Disease severity and QoL were assessed at baseline, halfway through and at the end of UVB treatment, and again 4 months after ED. Outcome measures were the PASI and SAPASI scores, to assess disease severity; the Skindex-29, to evaluate health-related QoL; and the GHQ-12, to assess psychological wellbeing. RESULTS Statistically significant differences in SAPASI scores were recorded between end of therapy and the final assessment in KW and CG individuals, whereas no differences were found in PW patients. Differences between baseline and final Skindex-29 scores were not statistically significant in any group; nonetheless consistently lower 4-month scores in PW patients indicated a better health status. Also, all but the PW patients showed significant increases between end of UVB therapy and final scores on all three scales (emotional, functioning and symptoms). Although all groups had similar GHQ scores, KW patients had the worst GHQ values, especially at the final assessment. CONCLUSIONS In our pilot study, we observed that patients with psoriasis allocated to the writing exercise on traumatic and distressing experiences (PW protocol) have a longer period of remission after phototherapy. This provides preliminary evidence that such a simple and inexpensive tool may play a role in enhancing treatment efficacy and QoL, so that further research in this area may be warranted.