Stroke patients were nearly 50% more likely than patients with depressive heart attack to develop, and female stroke patients had a higher risk than their male peers, according to two preliminary studies by the same research group that presented at the International Stroke Association of America Stroke Conference 2021.
The virtual meeting is March 17-19, 2021 and is a major global meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health.
In what researchers said as one of the largest studies of post-stroke depression to date, they conducted two studies using the same U.S. Medicare dataset of patients age 65 or older in hospital for ischemic stroke or heart attack from July 2016 to December 31, 2017.
Among the more than 11 million Medicare beneficiaries admitted during the two – year study period, there were 174,901 with admissions for ischemic stroke and 193,418 with admissions for heart attack.
Patients were followed for 1.5 years, and patients with a history of pre-existing depression in the six months before their stroke or heart attack were excluded.
Depression after a stroke is almost three times more common in the general population and can affect up to a third of stroke patients. Patients with post-stroke depression also experience worse quality of life and outcomes. “
Laura K. Stein, MD, MPH, Study L.ead A.uthor and A.ssistant Professor, Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai
Stein is also a attending neurologist at the Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Queens Stroke Centers in New York City.
In the first study (Exhibit 22), researchers found:
- The risk of depression was approximately 50% more likely among patients who had a stroke (174,901) compared with patients who had a heart attack (193,418).
- A history of anxiety was found in 10.3% of ischemic stroke patients and 11.8% of patients with heart attack. Patients with ischemic stroke with a history of anxiety were 1.7 times more likely to develop depression than patients without anxiety.
- Anxiety history was the strongest predictor of post-stroke depression, and when discharged there was less depression.
- White patients were 1.33 times more likely to experience depression after a stroke.
- Patients 75 and older were 0.79 times less likely to experience depression after a stroke.
“We did not expect the cumulative risk of depression to remain so high. This finding supports that post-stroke depression is not simply a reversible consequence of life-altering difficulties after a stroke, “Stein said.
In another study by the same researchers (Exhibit 21), female stroke patients (90,474) had a 20% higher risk of developing depression than male stroke patients (84,427).
Drawing from the same pool of Medicare patients, a complete follow-up of inpatient, outpatient, and subacute nurse helped detect new depression more accurately compared to follow-up studies from multiple settings where whether depression can be monitored.
Researchers measured the growing risk for depression in women versus men over 1.5 years of follow-up. “Our current findings highlight the need for active screening and treatment for depression in the immediate and immediate aftermath of a stroke and the importance of screening all stroke patients. for depression after a stroke, including women and those with a history of mental illness, “Stein said.
Source:
American Heart Association