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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

A Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Technique for Inducing Post-stroke Depression in Rats
Published on: May 22, 2019
Depression in acute stroke
Lara Caeiro1, José M Ferro, Catarina O Santos
1Stroke Unit, Serviço de Neurologia, Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Hospital de Santa Maria, Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Portugal. laracaeiro@fm.ul.pt
Objective:
Depression is one of the most frequent neuropsychiatric disturbances in stroke patients. The clinical aspects and correlations of depression in the first days after acute stroke are less known. This study aimed to 1) assess the frequency of depression, 2) describe the profile of depression of stroke patients and 3) analyze the relation between depression and demographic, predisposing and precipitating conditions, and clinical and imaging data, in acute stroke patients.
Methods:
We used the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale to assess depression in 178 consecutive acute (
Results:
Eighty-two patients (46%) presented acute depression; apathy/loss of interest was the most frequent clinical feature. In logistic regression, the best model to predict depression (backward model) identified previous mood disorder (odds ratio 2.2-12.9) as an independent predictor. There were no significant differences in the frequency or severity (p > 0.45) of depression between control subjects and acute stroke patients.
Conclusions:
Depression was present in almost one-half of the acute stroke patients and was related to previous mood disorder but not not to stroke type or location. Apathy/loss of interest was the predominant clinical feature.
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