Screening of Post Stroke Depression at Discharge Using Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale

Author(s):

Nikita Shirture, Ashwini Kale, Shradha Shah and Gaurav Mhaske

Introduction: Stroke is a major life changing and chronic disabling event in a person’s life. Depression is a common mental disorder which allows a greater awareness of one’s losses. The National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke states that the patients should be screened for depression and anxiety within the first month of stroke. The current study focuses on screening for the estimation of proportion of depression and anxiety at the time of discharge in patients with Stroke. Methodology: After the baseline assessment and screening, 89 subjects were included in the studies which were admitted in tertiary health care center from 16 March 2020 to 18 September 2021, after first incident of ischemic stroke. Results: All the subjects were screened by hospital anxiety depression scale. Majority of the targeted population (82%) suffered from depression and/or anxiety. Among the depressed subjects, they ranged from normal to abnormal values, where 22.47% belonged to normal category, 33.70% in borderline category and 48.82% in abnormal levels for depression and in anxious subjects, it accounted for 20.22%, 26.96% and 52.80% respectively. Moreover, females were profoundly affected in either borderline or abnormal criteria of depression in the age groups of 18-38 years and 39-59 years. Discussion: In addition to being distressing in itself, depression after stroke depicts adverse outcomes that include lack of engagement in rehabilitation activities, longer duration of hospital stays, poor functional recovery, increased recurrence of stroke, and early mortality thereby resulting in a larger population among the targeted population for borderline or abnormal criteria for depression and anxiety on the hospital anxiety and depression scale. Conclusion: Depression and anxiety are present in majority of the stroke survivors leading to chronic disability. Young and middle aged females depicted higher levels of post stroke depression and anxiety.