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Acute Psychological Stress is a Trigger for Stroke: A Case-Crossover Study

Manya Prasad1, Pardeep Khanna2, V K Katyal3

  • 1Department of Community Medicine, North DMC Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital, New Delhi, India.

Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases : the Official Journal of National Stroke Association
|April 7, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Acute psychological stress significantly increases stroke risk. Experiencing stress in the two hours before an event raised stroke odds by 3.4 times, highlighting stress as a potential trigger.

Area of Science:

  • Neurology
  • Psychology
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Traditional stroke risk factors (chronic diseases) explain variation but not event timing.
  • Acute events like stroke are often preceded by episodes of acute psychological stress.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if acute psychological stress acts as a triggering factor for stroke occurrence.
  • To determine the short-term impact of psychological stress on stroke risk.

Main Methods:

  • Case-crossover study design involving 151 stroke patients.
  • Patients reported psychological stress during a 2-hour hazard period and a 2-hour control period (previous day).
  • Conditional logistic regression analyzed stress exposure during hazard vs. control periods.

Main Results:

  • Acute psychological stress was associated with a 3.4-fold increased odds of stroke within 2 hours post-exposure.
  • This association remained significant (95% CI 1.55-7.50) compared to periods without stress triggers.

Conclusions:

  • Acute psychological stress is identified as a potential independent triggering factor for stroke.
  • Further research is needed to confirm these findings and understand the underlying mechanisms of this short-term risk increase.
Abstract

Keywords:
Strokecase-crossoverstresstrigger

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