Association between Poststroke Depression and Psychological Crisis: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the association between poststroke depression (PSD) and psychological crisis in patients who have experienced a stroke within 6 months. Methods. This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that enrolled patients within 6 months after stroke onset. The investigators reviewed medical charts to obtain patients’ baseline characteristics, and a psychologist evaluated each patient for depression using the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ) and for psychological crisis using the Triage Assessment System (TAS). A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to analyze the association between the results of the TDQ and TAS. Results. Ninety-seven patients with stroke were included. Age ( $p=0.003$ ), time since onset of stroke ( $p=0.041$ ), diabetes mellitus ( $p=0.004$ ), hypertension ( $p=0.016$ ), heart disease ( $p=0.005$ ), and TDQ score were significantly different between the hemorrhagic stroke group and the ischemic stroke group. The TDQ score was significantly lower in the hemorrhagic stroke group ( $p=0.012$ ). The TDQ score was associated with the TAS total score and each domain score, and the presence of heart disease was associated with poorer TAS score in the behavioral domain ( $p=0.016$ ). Conclusion. PSD is likely an important component of psychological crisis in stroke patients. For clinicians, a comprehensive psychologic evaluation is necessary to optimize treatment.