A new study has shown that anxiety amplifies the physical signs of Parkinson's disease, according to people who experience both conditions.
The study, believed to be the first to explore the lived experience of anxiety for people with Parkinson's, also revealed that study participants did not see talking therapy as a useful solution, and more support was needed for people with the conditions, along with their carers and health professionals.
Led by the University of Plymouth and Glasgow Caledonian University, the research was published in the journal PLOS ONE and saw authors conduct in-depth interviews with six people living with Parkinson's and anxiety. The study covered three male and three female participants, each at varying stages of Parkinson's, and uncovered primary themes that:
• Anxiety amplifies their physical Parkinson's symptoms
• Anxiety affects their cognition and freezes the thought process
• Anxiety was 'always there' and they were constantly trying to find ways to cope
Crucially, it highlighted how people's experiences of anxiety varied significantly, and there needed to be a person-centred solution to help.
Lead author, Chris Lovegrove, will now use the findings to develop a new occupation-based complex intervention to help people with Parkinson's live well with anxiety. He has recently been awarded a Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship by Health Education England and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to pursue this.
Dr Katrina Bannigan, Head of the Department of Occupational Therapy and Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Glasgow Caledonian University, said:
"I am delighted to be involved in this hugely important work looking at ways to help people with Parkinson's cope with anxiety because there is no medication available to them, so occupational therapy is a real solution. By speaking to real people with Parkinson's we've really started to gain insights into how we can improve their lives. What makes this research unique is the sheer depth of these interviews looking at their lived experience. We needed to better understand what the issues are before we could start designing interventions."
The full study, entitled What is the lived experience of anxiety for people with Parkinson's? A phenomenological study, is available to view now in the journal PLOS ONE (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249390).
