Aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of emotional and cognitive changes after stroke on the lives of patients and their partners. The emotional and cog-nitive consequences of stroke were measured at three and fifteen months post-stroke in a community based group of patients with a clinically first-ever, unilateral, ischemic stroke. Most stroke patients in the study sample were collected by GPs from the north-ern part of the Netherlands, while a small part was recruited at a hospital stroke unit. A control group, matched to patients on age and gender using a stratified randomisation procedure, was recruited through practices of 4 GPs. Only patients and controls without previous neurological or psychiatric disturbances and with...