Development of neuropsychiatric disorders in post-stroke patients: a cross sectional study

The study aimed to characterize neuropsychiatric symptomatology and its evolution in a large group of cerebrovascular injured patients during their first year post-stroke. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI, Cummings et al., 1994), was administered to a sample of 124 patients with unilateral cerebrovascular focal lesion. They were divided into three independent groups on the basis of stroke distance: 45 patients were evaluated 2 months after stroke, 45 patients 6 months after and 34 patients one year after stroke. The controls were 61 healthy subjects. A wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders were found significant in the brain-damaged population with respect to the control group: mostly depression (61%), irritability (43%), apathy (34%), eating disturbances (33%), anxiety (30%) and agitation (28%). Modifications in terms of greater depression, anxiety, irritability and eating disturbances characterized the whole year after stroke. However, other symptoms emerged depending on distance from stroke: agitation, euphoria and aberrant motor behavior were significantly present only at 2 months, and apathetic behavior only in the post-acute phase (6 and 12 months) with nighttime disturbance