DEPRESSION IN THE ACUTE STAGE AFTER THE FIRST ISCHEMIC STROKE

in the acute phase of cerebral ischemia, 55% of the patients showed si gns of mild depression after a period of 5-9 days. The development and intensity of depressive symptoms correlated strongly with the grade o f functional impairment. A statistically less significant relationship was established between the depressive symptoms and low social status , higher age,lower predisease intelligence and accompanying symptomes of anxiety. Independent of antidepressive therapy, after 4 weeks an im provement in the initially registered functional and intellectual impa irment as well as the depressive symptoms (prevalence rate 23.3%) was recorded. None of these parameters correlated with each other in any w ay. In conclusion,we interpreted these depressive symptoms as the resu lt of reactive coping strategies during the acute phase of cerebral is chemia. In contrast to this, the aspect of gender showed no significan t relationship to the resulting depressive symptoms. Furthermore, lesi on location, lesion volume, and cortical atrophy and cognitive impairm ent proved to have no influence on depressive symptoms. This suggests that primary organic factors are not the cause of depression in connec tion with the acute stroke period.