Coping with chronic neurological impairment: a contrastive analysis of Parkinson's disease and stroke

This study aimed at a contrastive analysis of coping strategies and psychosocial alterations in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and stroke (CVA) and their relatives. Fifty-four PD and 50 CVA patients were investigated with a standardized semistructured interview to assess the severity of psychosocial changes following illness, the Freiburg Questionnaire on Coping with Illness, the Cornell Depression Scale and instruments to assess motor impairment. Psychosocial alterations were most prominent in the professional and emotional-cognitive domains. Degree of depression correlated with familial and emotional-cognitive alterations in both patient groups. Active problem-oriented coping and distraction predominated as coping styles. Religious relief and quest for sense were significantly more important for the PD patients. Coping styles did not correlate with degrees of depression, motor impairment or psychosocial alterations.