Regular Research ArticleThe High Prevalence of Anxiety Disorders After Stroke
Section snippets
Aims of the Study
Our goal was to investigate the point prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder at 20 months post-stroke, and to delineate the symptom profile in generalized anxiety disorder. The diagnoses of anxiety disorders were made according to DSM-III-R criteria. Participants from the general population with a similar age and sex profile were included as a comparison group. We hypothesised that the stroke group would exhibit higher rates of anxiety
Participants
The stroke patients in this study were recruited consecutively into a naturalistic study examining the effect of stroke unit care. Patients were asked to participate as they were admitted for acute stroke to the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. As well as acute stroke services, this hospital provides secondary and regional care to the surrounding population. We included only patients with completed stroke who were 70 years and older, in an attempt to more closely reflect the population in
Results
From an initial cohort of 243 consecutive hospital-based stroke patients, 149 were investigated after 20 months. Of those patients lost to follow-up, 77 had died and 17 could not be examined. One of these 17 could not be contacted because of unknown address. The other 16 were all contacted but were not willing to participate further, with reasons including language difficulties (N = 4), low mood (N = 3), psychiatric problems other than depression (N = 2), reported forgetfulness (N = 2), and
Discussion
Our data indicate that people who have suffered a stroke are more likely to experience anxiety disorders than people of similar age and sex from the general population. The higher burden of anxiety was found not only for GAD, but also for phobic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. These findings cannot be explained by higher levels of comorbid depression in the stroke sample. Nor can they be simply attributed to disability arising from the stroke, as greater dependence in activities of
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