[Mood disorders and right hemisphere infarction]

Persistent depression of mood following stroke and acute psychiatric disturbances in conjunction with infarcts in the right hemisphere has been well reported. Sometimes its psychiatric features were most salient although neurological signs could not be elicited. We treated two patients with infarcts in the right hemisphere. The first developed depression with melancholia, the second a bipolar disorder. We question whether aprosodia or mood neglect may give a melancholic profile of depression following right hemisphere damage.