Thought this was interesting: MedlinePlus: Depression After Stroke Can Be Debilitating
THURSDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- Depression stops stroke victims from returning to work almost as often as physical disability does, Australian researchers report.
The study of 210 men and women, average age 55, who had paying jobs before a stroke found that 112 of them returned to work within six months -- about the same ratio as in a recent U.S. study, said researchers at the George Institute for International Health in Sydney. Their report appears in the March 28 issue of Stroke.
In developed countries, roughly 20 percent of stroke victims are still young enough to be part of the workforce, the researchers noted.
Of those study participants who went back to work, 71 percent were rated as physically independent. Thirty-three percent of those working were diagnosed with post-stroke depression, compared with 45 percent of those who had not returned to their jobs.
"Physicians should continually assess patients' mood after a stroke, because it's an important predictor of whether patients will go back to work," study author Dr. Nick Glozier said in a statement.
Only 30 percent of the stroke survivors with depression had received treatment for their psychiatric problem, the researchers found.
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