Stroke survivors can face many challenges as they recover. Now, a new
federal survey is showing that one out of every 12 stroke survivors has
contemplated suicide or thought that he or she would be better off
dead.
That's more common than what's seen in people with other
health problems such as heart attacks or cancer, and it suggests that
depression after stroke is more serious than many had realized.
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10 deadly myths about stroke"It was surprising" and shows a need for more treatment, said the
study's leader, Dr. Amytis Towfighi of the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles. "When patients have their depression treated
they're more motivated to take their medication, do therapy and live a
full life."
The study was discussed Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.
More
than 6 million Americans have had a stroke; about 800,000 occur each
year in the U.S. Studies suggest that up to a third of stroke survivors
develop depression, but few have looked at suicidal thoughts - one sign
of how serious it is. Stroke kills about 130,000 Americans each year -
about one of every 18 U.S. deaths -- according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It's
not necessarily active suicidal thoughts with a plan, but perhaps
wishing you hadn't survived the event," Towfighi explained.
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Insomnia linked to risk of stroke, heart attack: study She used the National Health and Nutrition Surveys, a government
project that gives checkups and questionnaires to a representative
sample of adults. More than 17,000 people were surveyed from 2005
through 2010.
They included 678 who had suffered a stroke; 758
who had had a heart attack; 1,242 with cancer, and 1,991 with diabetes.
Researchers don't know how long ago these problems occurred of if people
were still being treated for them.
They were asked a question
that many studies use to gauge suicidal thinking: "Over the last two
weeks, how often have you been bothered by thoughts that you would be
better off dead, or of hurting yourself?"
About 8 percent of
stroke survivors reported such thoughts, compared to 6 percent of heart
attack survivors, 5 percent of those with diabetes and 4 percent with
cancer.
Suicidal thoughts were more likely in people who scored
high on depression tests, were younger, overweight, less educated, poor,
female or unmarried.
Another study published in December 2012 in
Stroke showed that people over 65 who went through "psychosocial
distress," including stress and depression, were significantly more
likely to have a stroke and die from it. The most distressed subjects
were 54 percent more likely to be hospitalized from having a stroke
compared who were the least stressed.
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Depression may develop partly because strokes damage the very
thing that controls mood - the brain, said a neurologist with no role in
the study, Dr. Brian Silver of Brown University and Rhode Island
Hospital.
"It's not necessarily the reaction to the disease ...
it's also the disease itself that is causing the depression," by
releasing harmful chemicals that can trigger it, he said.
Suicidal
thinking is a well-known problem, but this study "puts a number on it"
and shows the need to watch for and treat it, Silver said.
On the
other side of the coin, an earlier study published in September 2012 in
the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that depression
significantly increased the risk of having a stroke and dying from it.
Depression was associated with 45 percent increased risk for stroke and a
55 percent increased chance of dying from a stroke. The authors were
unsure why depression led to stroke, but they did note that depression
could cause inflammation of the nervous and immune systems, as well as
increases the risk for diabetes and high blood pressure. These factors
could potentially increase stroke risk.
الثلاثاء فبراير 13, 2024 10:56 am من طرف nadaroyal
موضوع: One out of 12 stroke survivors contemplates suicide 
