Prediction of depressive symptoms up to three years post-stroke.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the long-term course of depressive symptoms up to 3 years post-stroke and to develop a prediction model for depressive symptoms 1 and 3 years post-stroke. DESIGN: Longitudinal follow-up study. PATIENTS: Data were analysed for 131 patients with a first-ever supratentorial stroke admitted for inpatient rehabilitation in the Netherlands METHODS: The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale was used to assess post-stroke depressive symptoms at 6 months, 1 and 3 years post-stroke. RESULTS: Post-stroke depressive symptoms were present 6 months, 1 year and 3 years post-stroke in 23.7%, 25.2% and 16.0% of the patients, respectively. At all 3 assessments post-stroke depressive symptoms were absent in 65.6% of the patients and present in 12.2% of the patients. Of the patients with post-stroke depressive symptoms 6 months post-stroke, 41.9% had recovered from post-stroke depressive symptoms 3 years post-stroke. The most important predictor of post-stroke depressive symptoms 1 and 3 years post-stroke was post-stroke depressive symptoms 6 months post-stroke (area under the curve 0.75 and 0.85). Male gender was an additional predictor for post-stroke depressive symptoms 3 years post-stroke. CONCLUSION: Long-term post-stroke depressive symptoms are highly predictable at 6 months post-stroke. If a patient has not recovered from post-stroke depressive symptoms within the first 6 months post-stroke there is a high risk of chronic post-stroke depressive symptoms.

Author information

Author/s: Schepers, Vera (V); Post, Marcel (M); Visser-Meily, Anne (A); van de Port, Ingrid (I); Akhmouch, Mimouna (M); Lindeman, Eline (E);

Affiliation: Center of Excellence for Rehabilitation Medicine Utrecht, Rehabilitation Center De Hoogstraat and Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of rehabilitation medicine : official journal of the UEMS European Board of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (J Rehabil Med), published in Sweden. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Nov; vol 41 (issue 11) : pp 930-5

Dates: Created 2009/10/20; Completed 2009/10/23;

PMID: 19841846, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/23/2009, IMS Date: )

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