Abstract
Stroke produces a wide range of mental and emotional disorders. Neuropsychiatric complications associated with stroke may have negative effects on the social functioning, overall quality of life and the recovery of motor functioning of stroke survivors. To determine the prevalence and nature of psychiatric morbidity among stroke patients attending neurology outpatient clinic of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin-Nigeria. All patients with stroke aged 18 years and above at an outpatient neurology clinic in Ilorin, Nigeria were assessed for mental and emotional disorders using the Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) over one year (March 2009 to February 2010). Overall prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was 36.0% (30/83) among 83 patients who constituted the study population. Specific diagnoses recorded were depression (19.2%), generalised anxiety disorder (9.6%), harmful alcohol use (2.4%); dementia, somatoform disorder, phobia and delusional disorder each had a prevalence of 1.2%. Clinical and sociodemographic variables were not significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity. Psychiatric disorders are often associated with stroke. Identifying and treating stroke patients with these psychiatric co-morbidities could thus help to improve the overall quality of life of these patients.
Highlights
The World Health Organization defines Stroke as ‘’rapidly developing clinical signs of focal disturbance of cerebral function, with symptoms lasting 24 hours or longer or leading to death with no apparent cause other than of vascular origin[1]
Setting This study was conducted at University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) which is a tertiary health institution owned by the Federal Government
A prevalence of 9.1% was obtained by extracting data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs administrative database; no structured interview was conducted and stroke patients who died within 30 days of their index stroke from the commencement of the study were excluded from the study
Summary
The World Health Organization defines Stroke as ‘’rapidly developing clinical signs of focal (or global ) disturbance of cerebral function, with symptoms lasting 24 hours or longer or leading to death with no apparent cause other than of vascular origin[1]. PSD is one of the commonest neuropsychiatric complications associated with stroke. Studies from developed countries have reported prevalence rates of 21.6% for major depression and 20.0% for minor depression in acute rehabilitation hospitals 6-12, and 24.0% and 23.0% respectively in the outpatient clinics in which duration of stroke varies between 3 months and 3 years8, . 13-18 Significant association between lesion location and development of PSD has been reported especially during the first few months following stroke[8, 19], and the most frequently associated lesion location is left- anterior lesion[4]. The time since occurrence of stroke appears to be the most crucial variable in determining whether there is increased frequency of mood disorders among patients with injury or dysfunction to the frontal regions of the left hemisphere[4].
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