Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
Post stroke depression is a common neuropsychiatric consequence of stroke. Some studies show that left hemisphere lesions may be associated with a higher incidence of depression. Others found no significant correlation between lesion location and depressive alterations after stroke.
OBJECTIVE:
To determine whether post stroke depression is correlated with the site of stroke lesion and to evaluate other determinants for the development of depression post stroke.
METHODOLOGY :
A cross sectional study was conducted at Baghdad teaching hospital on 50 patients with single demarcated unilateral lesions was selected according to CT scan of the brain, psychiatric assessment were performed to assess the presence of depression according to DSM-IV criteria. The severity of functional impairment of all patients was performed on the modified Rankin scale (mRS).
RESULTS :
The study showed that 54% of stroke patients were depressed and 46% of them had no depression. Patients with higher functional impairment score were more likely to have depression rather than those with lower score. No significant association had been found between depression with all other variables including site of stroke lesion.
CONCLUSION:
There is no correlation between the sites of stroke lesion and post stroke depression in patients with stroke.