“People with Parkinson’s don’t want more medication – they want to overcome the barriers they face every day due to anxiety”

Studies suggest that as many as six in 10 people with Parkinson’s experience anxiety. Yet this and other non-motor challenges are largely overlooked by traditional interventions, with motor issues perhaps understandably prioritised among clinicians.

Having listened to urgent calls from within the Parkinson’s community for this to change, however, Christopher Lovegrove is on a mission to develop a new anxiety intervention; shaped, not by general population anxiety approaches, but by people living with the challenges of Parkinson’s every day.

An occupational therapist by background, Christopher is an NIHR clinical doctoral research fellow at the University of Plymouth and Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Here he talks to NR Times about his vision and the progress made so far in realising it.