Emotional and social characteristics of stroke patients with low verbal memory.

Background: Cognitive deficits, especially problems with memory observed after stroke often coexist with patients' experience of difficulties in everyday life situations.

Aims: The purposes of the study were to explore the relationships between verbal memory, emotional functioning and social competence in stroke patients, and to examine the emotional and social condition of stroke patients with low verbal memory.

Methods: Ninety-five participants were assessed with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, the Neuropsychology Behavior and Affect Profile, and the Social Competency Questionnaire. The participants' relatives (N = 95) also took part in the study evaluating patients' emotional and social functioning.

Results: Stroke patients with low verbal memory had higher scores in depression, indifference, and inappropriateness than the patients with normal memory. They also obtained higher scores in the self-reported intimacy and lower scores in objectively assessed social exposition than controls.

Discussion: It is worth considering patients' relationships with relatives that evolve after stroke, especially when the patients experience cognitive difficulties in gaining new information. Collecting verbal information seems to be important for the feeling of effectiveness in some dimensions of elders' social functioning.

Conclusions: Because the social engagement may be treated as protective factor in the course of recovery we would recommend that during rehabilitation more attention should be paid to emotional and social functioning of stroke patients with low verbal memory.