The Influence of Depressive Symptoms on Cognitive and Functional Recovery in Chronic Stroke Patients

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of depressive symptoms on cognitive and functional recovery in chronic stroke patients. METHOD: Seventy-four chronic stroke patients were included. They had inpatient rehabilitation program for 2 months. Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the Beck depression inventory (BDI), cognitive functions by the Korean mini-mental status examination (MMSE-K) and functional status by the modified Barthel index (MBI) before and after the rehabilitation. We investigated whether the improvement of depressive symptoms after rehabilitation had influenced the cognitive and functional recovery, by comparing the changes of MMSE-K and MBI in patients with depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Before inpatient rehabilitation program, patients with depressive symptoms had low scores of MMSE-K and MBI compared to those without. While patients with depressive symptoms had significant improvement of MMSE-K after rehabilitation (p<0.05), those without did not. Both groups with and without depressive symptoms had significant improvement of MBI after rehabilitation, but the changes of MBI were not different significantly. Among patients with depressive symptoms at admission, those who showed improved depression after rehabilitation had the significant improvement of MMSE-K after rehabilitation (p<0.05), but those with sustained depressive symptoms did not. CONCLUSION: Post-stroke depressive symptoms may influence on cognitive function. However, post-stroke depressive symptoms did not have any effect on functional recovery.