Abstract
This study investigated the influence of suggestive signs of depression (SSD) in right-hemisphere brain-damaged (RHD) patients following a stroke on their cognitive performance measured by a brief neuropsychological assessment battery. Forty-two adults with RHD after a single episode of stroke and 84 matched controls participated in this study. They were assessed by means of the Geriatric Depression Scale and by Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery NEUPSILIN. Almost half of the patients showed SSD. The RHD group with SSD (RHD+) showed poorer performance in at least one task among all evaluated cognitive domains (concentrated attention, visual perception, working memory, episodic verbal memory and semantic memory, auditory and written language, constructional praxia and verbal fluency). The association of depression and RHD seems to enhance the occurrence and the severity of cognitive déficits. A brief neuropsychological assessment can be useful to identify cognitive impairment caused by this neuropsychiatric disorder.
Highlights
Depression is considered to be one of the most common neuropsychiatric consequences following a stroke, reaching approximately a third of the patients
The signs of depression (SSD) incidence in right-hemisphere brain-damaged (RHD) patients in this study sample (47.62%) was compatible with indexes levels of depressive symptoms presented in the literature, suggesting that it is definitively a framework commonly found following a stroke
A varying level of 23 to 60% of patients’ post-stroke depression was observed[2]. This variability may be related to the variety of instruments utilized to assess depressive symptoms as well as the inclusion of patients with language difficulties, which limits the comprehension of depression scales and inventories
Summary
Depression is considered to be one of the most common neuropsychiatric consequences following a stroke, reaching approximately a third of the patients. Depression has been detected in between 20 and 60% of stroke patients, this rate ranging in accordance with the evaluation criteria established (by means of scales or semi-structured interviews, for instance), as well as to the population investigated (such as ischemic and/or hemorrhagic, chronic and/or acute stroke)(2) and lesion location. Patients with lesions involving left-hemisphere prefrontal or basal ganglia structures had a higher frequency of depressive disorder (75%) than other left-hemisphere lesions (8%) or those with right-hemisphere lesions (29%)(3). Studies investigating the relationship between injury localization and depression are contradictory[4,5]. Further investigations are necessary, specially considering the cognitive issues in right-hemisphere
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