How do people live life successfully with Parkinson's disease?

Core elements to understand and improve coping with Parkinson's disease in patients and family carers: A focus group study

“…To date, few studies have been identified that focus on understanding coping in the context of PD from the perspective of patients and family members. In line with previous research, this study has found that PD patients coped by accepting (Charlton & Barrow, ; Frazier, ; Kang & Ellis‐Hill, ; Whitney, 2004; Zaragoza Salcedo et al., ), being positive (Charlton & Barrow, ; Frazier, ; Haahr et al., ; Portillo et al., ), living in the present (Kang & Ellis‐Hill, ; Portillo et al., ; Whitney, 2004), having patience (Frazier, ), looking for information (Whitney, 2004) and partaking in activities (Frazier, ; Whitney, 2004). These findings support earlier studies and confirm that patients use emotion‐focused strategies and problem‐focused strategies for coping with PD more frequently than relatives.…”

“…Therefore, the aim is to look more closely, in the context of PD and the meaning of coping, at the “constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person” (Lazarus & Folkman, , p;.141). At the moment, the knowledge about coping with PD proceeds mainly from qualitative studies aimed at understanding the experience of living with PD (Charlton & Barrow, ; Haahr et al., ; Kang & Ellis‐Hill, ; Zaragoza Salcedo et al., ) and quantitative studies targeted to determine the most frequent coping skills in patients (Frazier, ; Hurt et al., ). However, this present study is focuses on researching the meaning of coping with PD according the definition of Lazarus and Folkman () and using a pluralist approach based on the integration of perceptions from patients, relatives and healthcare professionals.…”

Subjective and psychological well-being in Parkinson's Disease: A systematic review

“…45 Finally, despite the impairments related to the illness, it seems that positive emotions reported by patients with PD resulted to be beneficial to a better psychological adaptation to the illness progression itself. 45 Finally, despite the impairments related to the illness, it seems that positive emotions reported by patients with PD resulted to be beneficial to a better psychological adaptation to the illness progression itself.…”

“…Unfortunately, only few studies 36,37,39,42,46 included specific tools for measuring the characteristics of PD, such as UPDRS. 44,45 Moreover, tango interventions and other innovative rehabilitation programs, which involve music, singing, and other leisure activities, appear to be effective in improving well-being, as well as motor and non-motor symptoms. 38,40,41,[43][44][45]47 Bearing all these limitations in mind, an important common finding that emerged from the review of these articles concerns the preservation of motor skills.…”

“…35 However, the current literature is lacking specific investigations on these dimensions in PD. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Furthermore, patients with PD may show some deficits in recognizing emotions, compared to healthy controls. 36 PD patients need to adapt to these progressive changes, and the process of adaptation may lead them to experience a personal journey of growth and other psychological resources.…”