Anxiety and Parkinson’s: Examining the Efficacy of Psychological Interventions and the Co-Development of a Standardised Measure

Irving-Curran, Charlotte (2021) Anxiety and Parkinson’s: Examining the Efficacy of Psychological Interventions and the Co-Development of a Standardised Measure. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Background: Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative condition, which is often accompanied by anxiety. The anxiety experienced by people with Parkinson’s is poorly characterised, and often undiagnosed and undertreated. Establishing accurate and reliable means of characterising and treating anxiety in this population may aid diagnosis and improve treatment. At present, only a few studies have investigated the effectiveness of psychological interventions specifically for people with Parkinson’s and anxiety.
Methods: This thesis portfolio consists of a systematic review with meta-analysis, and an empirical study. The systematic review examined the efficacy of psychological interventions for people with Parkinson’s and anxiety. The empirical study conducted secondary analyses of a database of 254 people with Parkinson’s and anxiety to develop a new scale, in long and short forms. The scales were developed using exploratory factor analysis, validity and reliability analyses, and confirmatory factor analysis.
Results: The systematic review identified 12 studies (n = 170) using a range of study designs, including case studies, uncontrolled and controlled trials. Meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials (n = 4) and pre-post intervention data (n = 6) found preliminary evidence that psychological interventions can be efficacious for people with Parkinson’s and anxiety. The empirical study developed and provided initial validation for the ‘Comprehensive Anxiety and Parkinson’s Scale’ (CAPS), in its long (54 items), and short (24 items) versions.
Conclusions: Psychological interventions may be beneficial in reducing anxiety for people with Parkinson’s. However, more, high quality randomised controlled trials are needed. The standardised CAPS scales offer comprehensive means of assessing the experience of anxiety in Parkinson’s.

‘Parkinson’s’ is the preferred term by people with Parkinson’s (Parkinson’s UK, 2021) and will be used throughout this thesis portfolio, with the exception of the main papers (Chapter 2 and 4) written for submission to the Movement Disorders journal which uses the term Parkinson’s disease.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Depositing User:	Jackie Webb
Date Deposited:	18 Nov 2021 16:29
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2021 16:29
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/82215
DOI:

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