Family History of Psychiatric Disorders as a Risk Factor for Post-Stroke Depression: A Systematic Review and...

Currently, the evidence regarding the relationship between family history of psychiatric disorders and post-stroke depression (PSD) is inconsistent. Some observational studies did not consider a positive family history of psychiatric disorders as a definite risk factor. Furthermore, the bulk of research on the association between family history of psychiatric disorders and PSD comes from earlier studies that were frequently constrained by modest sample sizes. Therefore, we plan to use a meta-analysis approach to study this correlation.

We systematically reviewed the studies related to PSD and family history of psychiatric disorders from PubMed, Embase and EBSCO. The studies eligible for inclusion were peer-reviewed observational studies that reported an odds ratio or contained sufficient data to enable its calculation. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of the proportion of PSD patients with a reported positive family history of psychiatric disorders.

Eleven studies published between 1990 and 2020 were included, comprising data on stroke patients. The meta-analysis revealed an elevated odds ratio of 1.73 (95% CI: 1.29-2.33; I ² = 6.1%) for the development of PSD among stroke patients with a familial predisposition to psychiatric disorders. The findings of subgroup, sensitivity, and meta-regression analyses concurred with the primary analysis. According to GRADE, the overall certainty of the evidence was judged as moderate.

This study revealed moderate certainty of evidence, indicating that stroke patients with family history of psychiatric disorders have approximately a 1.73-fold risk of developing PSD compared to those without such a family history.