Does Depression Impact Stroke Recovery?

Stroke patients who had depression were less likely to recover

(RxWiki News) Recovering from stroke can be hard. New research suggests that mental health may affect recovery from a stroke.

A study, set to be presented at a conference, found that people with depression who had a stroke were almost four times less likely to survive than people without depression. Catching and treating depression may improve the odds of recovery from stroke.

"Ask a doctor about lowering your risk of stroke."

At an upcoming conference, Amy Towfighi, MD, of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and colleagues will present their study.

The study used data from a long-term study of 10,550 people. The people in the study were followed for up to 21 years.

People in the study were divided into four groups depending on their stroke history and their depression history.

A total of 48 people in the study had a stroke during the study, as well as depression. Seventy-three people had a stroke but did not have depression, and 2,291 people did not have a stroke but had depression. The remaining 8,138 people had neither stroke nor depression.

The researchers looked to see how likely people were to survive a stroke. They found that people who had a stroke and depression were about four times more likely than people without depression to die as a result of their stroke.

The authors concluded that depression lowers the likelihood of recovery from stroke. They suggested that detecting and treating depression is needed to help improve recovery after stroke.

This study will be presented in March at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.

Because this study will be presented at conference, it may not have had the chance to be reviewed for accuracy by other experts in the field.

Review Date: 
January 15, 2013