Lacunar Infarcts, Depression, and Anxiety Symptoms One Year after Stroke

Mood disorders are frequent after stroke and are associated with poorer quality of life. Previous studies have reported conflicting results as to stroke subtype in the incidence of poststroke mood disorders. We explored the relationship between subcortical ischemic stroke subtype (lacunar) and presence of such symptoms at 1 year after stroke.

Anonymized data were accessed from the Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive. Stroke subtypes were classified according to the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment classification. Depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. We investigated independent predictors of depression and anxiety symptoms using a logistic regression model.

Data were available for 2160 patients. Almost one fifth of the patients developed both anxiety and depression at 1-year follow-up. After adjusting for confounders, the lacunar subtype was least associated with both anxiety (odds ratio [OR] = .61; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .46-.80) and depression symptoms (OR = .71; CI = .55-.93) versus other stroke subtypes.

Lacunar strokes have a weaker association with presence of anxiety and depression symptoms compared with other subtypes.