Objective: To understand the associations between coping styles and various clinical symptoms and outcomes in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: The diagnosis of a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder such as Parkinson’s disease is life-altering and presents those affected with a realm of psychological and physical stressors. Research suggests that the coping style employed by patients can either facilitate or impede long-term emotional and physical well-being. In patients with PD, associations between coping style and health-related quality of life have been found, however, little is known about how these coping styles may be associated with specific disease symptoms and progression, and health behaviours.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 75 patients with PD and 28 of their caregivers. Information was collected on demographics, coping style (Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations), psychological and cognitive functioning (Beck Depression Inventory, Starkstein Apathy Scale and Montreal Cognitive Assessment), health behaviours (Exercise Level Screen Tool), and PD symptom severity (Hoehn and Yahr scale). Patient medical records were accessed to obtain PD symptom scores and information on disease progression.

Results: The mean age of the PD subjects was 67.4 (SD 8.18) and the mean disease duration was 10.6 years (SD 6.29). Results indicate that a higher tendency to use emotion-oriented coping strategies was associated with increased depression and apathy, faster disease progression, decreased participation in physical exercise, and increased caregiver depression. No relationship was observed between cognitive functioning and coping style. No gender differences were observed.

Conclusions: Emotion-oriented coping styles appear to be maladaptive in the context of PD with respect to psychological functioning, disease progression, health behaviours, and caregiver well-being. Therapeutic interventions should be designed to reduce the amount of emotion-oriented coping that individuals with PD engage in.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/coping-styles-and-their-influence-on-outcomes-in-parkinsons-disease/