Depression Improvement Is Related to Social Role Functioning After Stroke

Schmid AA et al. – Among stroke survivors with depression, improvement of that depression was independently associated with improved social role functioning (SRF) . This is a reminder of the importance for rehabilitation providers to screen for and treat poststroke depression.

Methods

• The authors completed a secondary data analysis using data from a completed cohort study including people with stroke with or without depression.
• They used multiple linear regression to identify variables independently associated with 12-week SRF.
• Hospital and patients' homes.
• The intervention was via phone calls.
• People with a new stroke recruited during the inpatient stay (N=371, depressed only n=176).
• All survived an ischemic stroke, were 18 years and older, spoke and understood English, owned a telephone, had no severe language or cognitive impairments, and were expected to live at least 6 months.
• They measured depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and depression improvement was defined by a 50% decrease in PHQ-9 scores from baseline to 12 weeks or a 12-week PHQ-9 score <10.
• SRF was measured with the social domain of the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale.

Results

• Depression and comorbidities were found to be independently associated with 12-week SRF.
• Importantly, depression response (or depression improvement) was the only variable to independently predict SRF in the depressed-only group.

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