Prevalence of post stroke depression and its relationship with disability and lesion location

This study aims to investigation the incidence of depression after stroke and related factors. This investigation is a descriptive- analytic study which was conducted in the neurology department of Khatam hospital in 2007. We studied 100 patients with stroke in the first month after stroke, with using the available sampling. Patient's inclusion criteria were age higher than 18, defined place of cerebral lesion with CT scan or MRI, the sensory-motor disorders, Barthel disability index>70 before the stroke. Exclusion criteria were aphasia, consciousness impairment and mini-mental status examination <20. These patients were studied by demographic and Beck Depression Inventory and Bartheldisability index. Data were analyzed by SPSS statistical soft ware with t-test and Chi-square test. We studied 100 (61 men and 39 women) patients, that 42 (42%) persons were depressed. Between physical disability after stroke on the basis of Barthel index and depression were significant relation (қ2=12.322, df =1, P<0.001) but there was no significant relationship between depression and lesion location. It seems there is a significant relation between the amount of physical disability after stroke and the occurrence of depression.