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Updated: May 28, 2026

A Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Technique for Inducing Post-stroke Depression in Rats
Published on: May 22, 2019
Depression and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective studies
Jia-Yi Dong1, Yong-Hong Zhang, Jian Tong
1Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Dushu Lake Higher Education Town, Suzhou, 215123 China. qinliqiang@suda.edu.cn
Background And Purpose:
A history of depression may be associated with an increased risk of stroke. We aimed to determine the association between depression and risk of stroke by performing a meta-analysis of prospective studies.
Methods:
Relevant studies were identified by a PubMed database search through May 2011 without restrictions and by reviewing reference lists of obtained articles. Community-based or population-based prospective studies that reported relative risk estimates with 95% confidence intervals for the association between depression and stroke were selected. Studies that enrolled participants with preexisting stroke at baseline were excluded. A random-effects model was used to compute the pooled risk estimate.
Results:
Random-effects meta-analysis of 17 prospective studies involving 206 641 participants and 6086 cases demonstrated a significant positive association between depression and subsequent risk of stroke (pooled relative risk, 1.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.54) after adjustment for potential confounding factors. The associations were similar between men and women. Potential publication bias may exist, but correction for this bias using a formal statistical method did not materially alter the combined risk estimate.
Conclusions:
Depression significantly increased the risk of development of stroke, and this increase was probably independent of other risk factors, including hypertension and diabetes.
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