Influence of Psychological Disorders on the Functional Outcomes in the Survivors of Ischemic Stroke.

BACKGROUND

Stroke has the greatest disabling impact of any chronic disease. The survivors of stroke, experience an average of 2.38 stroke related emotional, and behavioral components. In this study we decided to find out the frequency of psychological disorders and its association with impairment of daily living. We assessed the association of psychological symptoms after stroke and study their impact on physical functional recovery.

METHODS

This is a hospital based observational cross-sectional study to assess the impact of early psychological symptoms on outcomes for patients with new or recurrent stroke. All subjects were evaluated in detail as per the case report for neurologic manifestations, psychological symptoms, stroke risk factors, complications and comorbidities. Relevant clinical information were recorded using the Duke Severity of Illness Scale. General Health Questionnaire 28 (GHQ28), Modified Barthel Index along with statistical tests like Chi square test was used in the study.

RESULTS

Depression is the most prevalent psychological disorder as assessed by GHQ28 and Present State Examination in survivors of acute ischemic stroke. In survivors of acute ischemic stroke diabetes mellitus is most significantly associated with impairment of daily living. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking and dyslipidemia were found to be the most important risk factors in the present study. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor in these cases. But diabetes was found to be statistically significantly associated with impairment of daily living in the survivors of acute ischemic stroke.

DISCUSSION

Present study entitled as Influence of psychological disorders on the functional outcomes in the survivors of acute ischemic stroke included 50 cases of survivors of acute ischemic stroke. Male to female ratio was 12:13. Mean ages in cases was 66.96 years. Physical disability was present in 24% patients. There was statistically significant prevalence of psychological disorders in cases with physical impairment than those without physical impairment p value 0.001. Psychological disorders in stroke survivors are associated with physical disability in survivors of acute ischemic stroke. Present study also found association of diabetes with physical disability in cases of survivors of acute ischemic stroke.