Study	Reason for exclusion
Bruzzese 2011	Intervention consists of education only programme, no written emotional disclosure (WED) component
Hockemeyer 2002	Multiple interventions consisting of tape‐recorded deep‐breathing relaxation exercise and WED, difficult to tease out the effects of WED alone
Horowitz 2008	Narrative review of WED in different conditions
Hyland 1993	Diary keeping refers to peak flow diaries—not relevant
Magar 2005	Does not include WED
McGhan 2010	Intervention other than WED
Okelo 2004	Not an RCT
Shah 2001	No apparent WED component
Sharifabad 2010	Diagnosis other than asthma not excluded. Patients with COPD and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis included in the study
Smyth 2002	Substudy of Smyth 1999—analysis mostly qualitative
Theadom 2010	Qualitative study using framework analysis
Tousman 2011	No WED component
Urek 2005	Intervention does not include WED component

COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; RCT: randomised controlled trial; WED: written emotional disclosure.