Illness representations, coping and psychological adjustment to Parkinson's disease

The present study reports an application of the common sense model (CSM) of illness representations to the prediction of psychological distress in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). The study sought to (i) examine cross-sectional and prospective associations between illness representations, coping and psychological distress, and (ii) test the hypothesis that coping would mediate any relationships between illness representations and psychological distress. Patients with PD (n = 58) completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised, the Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Patients (n = 57) were followed-up at 6 months. Illness representations explained large amounts of variance in time 1 anxiety (R-2 = 0.42) and depression (R-2 = 0.44) as well as additional variance in time 2 anxiety (Delta R-2 = 0.12) and depression (Delta R-2 = 0.09) after controlling for baseline scores. In addition, avoidance mediated the effect of emotional representations on time 1 anxiety, and acceptance-resignation mediated the effects of both consequences and emotional representations on time 1 depression. The present study therefore provides partial support for the mediational model outlined in the CSM, as significant mediation effects were found only in the cross-sectional analyses.