Correlation between fatigue and cognitive impaiment and depression in patients with lacunar stroke： a retrospective case series study

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between fatigue and cognitive impairment and depression after lacunar stroke. Methods A total of 103 patients with lacunar infarction admitted from September 2009 to November 2010 were enrolled. Post-stroke fatigue was evaluated with the Fatigue Scale （FS-14） and the Fatigue Severity Scale （FSS-9）; cognitive function was evaluated with the mini-mental state examination （MMSE） and the Montreal cognitive assessment （MoCA）; and depression was evaluated with the self-rating depression scale （SDS） and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale （HAMD）. Results There were 34 patients （33.01%） （FSS-9） and 45 patients （43.69%） （FS-14） had fatigue. Of the 34 fatigue patients determined with FSS-9 scores, 20 bad cognitive impairment, 26 had depression, and 16 had both cognitive impairment and depression. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that the FS-14 scores were significantly negatively correlated with the scores of MMSE （r= -0. 307, P= 0. 002） and MoCA （r= -0. 457, P= 0. 000）, and significantly positively correlated with the scores of SDS （r = 0. 368, P = 0. 000） and HAMD （r = 0. 526, P =0. 000）; the FSS-9 scores were sigtificantly negatively correlated with the scores of MMSE （r = -0. 292, P =0. 003） and MoCA （r = -0. 340, P = 0. 000）, and siguificantly positively correlated with the scores of SDS （r = 0. 403, P -0. 000） and HAMD （r = 0. 564, P = 0. 000）. Conclusions The incidence of fatigue, coguitive impairment and depression was higher. There was a certain correlation between fatigue and cognitive impairment and depression. Key words: Stroke; Brain Ischemia; Brain Infarction; Fatigue; Cognition Disorders; Depression