Hemispheric lateralization of depression and attention deficit

Abstract

Objective: There is a complex interaction among to the ischemic cerebrovascular diseases, cognition and depression. The aim of present study is to investigate the relationship between lesion side and depression and attention deficit in patients with Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) infarction.
 Methods: This study was conducted on 41 patients with right and left MCA infarction. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used for determination of depression severity of patients and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scoring was used for evaluation of cognitive status. Attention sub-test of MoCA score was also examined.
 Results: 20 patients had right MCS. The mean age of the patients was 72.21 years. 51.2% of the patients were male. BDI mean score was found to be 11.25 in patients with right MCA infarction and 16.9 in patients with left MCA infarction (p:0.04). The total MoCA scores between two groups were similar (right/left MCA infarction: 20.8/21.3). It was seen to be lower attention sub-score in patients with right hemisphere effects compared to patients with left hemispheric lesion (3.1/5.9; p:0.00).
 Conclusion: According to our findings, it is understood that attention of patients with right MCA infarction is more affected and patients with left MCA infarction is more depressed. In future studies, depression and attention affects which are at risk of developing after MCA infarctions should be evaluated in detail and should be put emphasis to rehabilitation of these areas.