Psychological factors determine depressive symptomatology after stroke.

Objective: To identify psychological factors related to poststroke depressive symptoms.

Design: Cross-sectional study, with patients assessed at 2 months poststroke.

Setting: Patients with stroke from 6 general hospitals.

Participants: Stroke patients (N=344; mean age ± SD, 66.9±12.3y).

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: The presence of clinical depressive symptoms was determined with the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale 2 months poststroke. Psychological factors assessed were extraversion, neuroticism, optimism, pessimism, self-efficacy, helplessness, acceptance, perceiving benefits, proactive coping, and passive coping.

Results: Bivariate correlations and multivariate backward logistic regression were used to analyze associations between psychological factors and poststroke depressive symptoms, accounting for demographic and stroke-related factors. More neuroticism, pessimism, passive coping, and helplessness, and less extraversion, optimism, self-efficacy, acceptance, perceived benefits, and proactive coping were bivariately associated with the presence of depressive symptoms. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that more helplessness (odds ratio [OR]=1.17) and passive coping (OR=1.19) and less acceptance (OR=.89) and perceived benefits (OR=.89) were independently significantly associated with the presence of poststroke depressive symptoms (Nagelkerke R(2)=.49).

Conclusions: We found a relationship between psychological variables and the presence of depressive symptoms 2 months poststroke. It is important to take these factors into account during poststroke rehabilitation.