Depressive symptoms may be a warning that a person may encounter a stroke. While post-stroke depression is a common problem experienced by many, a recent study published in the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology has pointed out that people develop depressive symptoms years before the stroke even occurred. The findings are based on research conducted for over 12 years on 10,797 adults with an average age of 65. The participants initially did not have a history of stroke but 425 of them suffered from it during the study period, reported Science Daily.
The participants were required to take a survey every two years where they were asked if they witnessed any symptoms of depression. Based on their submissions, they were awarded scores. The more the symptoms, the higher the points.
The findings showed that six years before the stroke, there was no difference between the symptoms experienced by participants who later had a stroke and those who did not. Both groups scored 1.6 points.
However, two years before the stroke, the scores of people who later had a stroke started rising by an average of 0.33 points. Later the stroke, their score rose by an additional 0.23 points to roughly 2.1 points and stayed at this level for almost 10 years.
People who did not have a stroke, on the other hand, maintained roughly the same score during the entire period of the research.
The report also demonstrated different patterns of development of depression amongst the participants. At the assessment before the stroke, 29 per cent of people who later had a stroke met the criteria of having probable depression.
However, at the time of stroke, 34 per cent of the people who had a stroke met the criteria for having probable depression, compared to 24 per cent of those who did not have a stroke.
“This suggests that increasing symptoms of depression before stroke are mostly subtle changes and may not always be clinically detectable. But even slight increases in depressive symptoms, especially mood and fatigue-related symptoms, maybe a signal of a stroke that is about to occur,” said Maria Blöchl, PhD, of the University of Münster in Germany.
The study could be a breakthrough in understanding the early signs of development of heart stroke risks.
