Abstract Body: Introduction: Stroke is a significant global health challenge, impacting physical and mental well-being, with many neuropsychiatric symptoms contributing to worse functional outcomes. Post-stroke depression (PSD) is a common neuropsychiatric consequence of stroke, affecting approximately one third of stroke survivors. PSD is associated with worse functional outcomes, higher mortality rates, and reduced quality of life.
Hypothesis: We hypothesize that patients with higher stroke severity scores on admission will have higher levels of immediate depressive symptoms and have a smaller household population.
Methods: This study examines the predictive power of immediate post-stroke depressive symptoms and functional outcomes at 3- and 12- months post hospitalization. 130 patients with Ischemic stroke were enrolled and completed a standard battery of questionnaires during their hospitalization. Post-stroke depression was measured via PHQ-9 scores, with scores above 5 denoting moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Acute stroke severity was measured using the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), with increasing scores indicating more severe strokes.
Results: Analyzing stroke severity and PSD development among patients with ischemic stroke, our statistical analyses revealed that larger household size significantly protects against PSD. For acute stroke injury, we found that patients living with fewer people at baseline are more likely to have a higher NIHSS score (p<0.05). Furthermore, after controlling for injury severity, increased household size at baseline was associated with significantly lower occurrence of PSD immediately after, and 3- months after stroke (p<0.05). When controlling for household size, female stroke patients are more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms at 3- months, in comparison to their male counterparts (p<0.005).
Conclusion: PSD emerged as a statistically significant factor for impaired functional outcomes, highlighting the importance of early intervention and management of depression in stroke care. These findings underscore the necessity of integrating early identification and treatment of depressive symptoms in stroke patients, particularly those with smaller household size and female patients. Future research aimed at exploring mechanisms behind the protective effects of larger households and sex differences in PSD is necessary to inform targeted therapeutic strategies.