Mental health problems after stroke

We investigated the mental health of 47 subjects (30 men, mean age 63.8+/-7 .7; 17 women, mean age 68.9+/-8.7) with the 60-item General Health Question naire (GHQ). All the subjects lived at home in a Japanese rural community a nd were examined from 2 to 3 years after suffering a stroke. Among the subj ects, 18 (38.3%) had GHQ scores of 17 or more, which indicated a mental hea lth problem (MHP). The following variables were included in multiple logist ic regression analysis: age, sex (men/women), grade of motor paralysis (no/ slight/moderate/severe), side of motor paralysis (no/left side/right side/b oth sides: in analysis, we used dummy variables), paresthesia (no/yes), reh abilitation (need no rehabilitation or participate in rehabilitation/fail t o participate in rehabilitation), social support (not needed or sufficient/ insufficient) and overall physical recovery (1/2/3: 1 = 67-100, 2 = 34-66, and 3 = 0-33 on a visual analog scale 100 mm long, 100 meaning full recover y). In univariate analysis all variables except age and sex showed statisti cally significant associations with MHP. In multivariate analysis, only one variable, 'overall physical recovery', had a statistically independent ass ociation with the status of MHP (Odds ratio 4.39, 95% confidence interval 1 .46-13.19). The results of logistic regression analysis indicate that the p resence of an MHP is more strongly dependent upon subjective assessment abo ut overall physical recovery after stroke than upon physical impairments an d the other psychosocial variables. Therefore, in the community setting, th e visual analog scale of overall physical recovery is considered to be a si mple, valid method for assessing MHP following stroke.