Abstract
Objectives
Depression is the most common mental complication in stroke survivors with about one‐third of patients suffering from post‐stroke depression (PSD). This was the first prospective study aimed to compare the prevalence of PSD and its symptoms between two cohorts of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH).
Methods
Both AIS and ICH patients were simultaneously enrolled in the study. Depression symptoms were measured using the 17‐item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD‐17) after a 1‐month follow‐up. Patients were diagnosed with PSD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM‐IV) and the HAMD‐17 (HAMD scores >7).
Results
The prevalence of PSD (42.3%) in the ICH group was significantly higher than that (22.9%) in the AIS group (p < 0.001). After adjustment for conventional confounding factors, the odds ratio of PSD was 2.65 (95% CI, 1.34‐5.24, p = 0.005) for ICH compared to AIS. Depressive symptoms consisting of anxiety, loss of interest, insomnia, and fatigue were more frequent in patients with ICH than in AIS patients.
Conclusions
PSD was more prevalent, and the risk was over two‐fold higher in patients with ICH than AIS.
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