Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Ä°stanbul Ãœniversitesi Ä°stanbul Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Ä°STANBUL Cognitive impairment, motor dysfunction and emotional changes after cerebrovascular attack are the major cause of disability at the middle age and older populations. The aim of this study was to assess and to compare the cognitive function and emotional status, depressive symptoms of the post-stroke patients with age, sex and education level matched healthy controls. 43 post-stroke patients and 39 healthy controls were evaluated by “Mini Mental State Examinations (MMSE)” test for cognitive functions and by “Beck Depression Index (BDI)” for depressive symptoms. The mean age of the patients was 58.60±12.53 years. The mean MMSE scores of the patients was 21.79±6.53 and of 26 (66.7%) patients were below 25; the mean MMSE scores of the controls was 27.03±3.24 and of 8 (21.1%) controls MMSE scores were below 25; the difference was significant (p<0.001). There was no statistical difference between the mean MMSE scores of the patients with dominant (20.26±7.07) and non-dominant (23.25±5.78) hemisphere lesions. Cognitive function scores decrease with increasing age at both post-stroke and control groups. The mean BDI scores of the patients and controls were 20.26±13.79 and 7.39±5.10 and the difference was statistically significant (p< 0.001). BDI scores of 15 patients were above 21, but there was no healthy control with BDI score above 21. There was no statistical difference between the mean BDI scores of the patients with dominant (22.27±15.55) and non-dominant (18.14±11.68) hemisphere lesions and there was no association between BDI scores and age of the post-stroke patients. In conclusion, post-stroke patients have cognitive impairments and depressive mood changes and these changes poor affect on functional daily performance of the patients. So, we, rehabilitation specialists need to emphasize on cognitive impairments and depressive mood changes as well as motor functions of stroke patients. Multidisciplinary, comprehensive rehabilitation programs are the essentials for good functional progression of post-stroke patients. Keywords : Stroke, Depression, Cognitive Function.