Psych Central News
1 in 3 Stroke Victims Later Contend with Depression
Physicians at Loyola University Medical Center in suburban Chicago write that antidepressant medications such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and escitalopram (Lexapro), can often relieve the initial depression.
Murray Flaster, M.D., Ph.D., Aparna Sharma, M.D., and Murali Rao, M.D., report in a review article in the journal Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation that mental disorders are common after stroke.
Disorders include anxiety, irritability and agitation, uncontrollable crying, apathy, delusions and hallucinations. However, according to the authors, the most common disorder is depression, either major or minor.
Some patients recover over time, while others move in and out of depression. For some patients, depression doesn’t develop until up to two years after the stroke.
The authors say that post-stroke depression (PSD) is linked to worse functional outcomes and increased risks of suicide and mortality.
Women are more likely to suffer PSD. Other risk factors include living alone and away from family members, higher levels of education, changes in lifestyle or marital status and degree of functional impairment.
Depression, in turn, is a risk factor for stroke and stroke recurrence, even after controlling for other risk factors.
Given the severe effects of PSD, doctors should take an aggressive approach, the researchers said. The timing of medication may be crucial, with early treatment perhaps advantageous.
In addition to helping relieve depression, antidepressants also have been shown to improve cognitive and functional recovery. Recent evidence also shows that SSRIs are helpful in motor recovery (improved movement and coordination).
“Taken together, the available data make a strong case for the prophylactic use and effectiveness of antidepressants post stoke,” the authors write.
Source: Loyola University Medical Center
Depressed man in a wheelchair photo by shutterstock.
Study Finds Learning Disabilities Often Bundled, Fairly Common
Disabilities include problems with math (dyscalculia), reading (dyslexia) and autism, translating to two or three pupils in every classroom.
Brian Butterworth, Ph.D., believes the study gives insight into the underlying causes of specific learning disabilities and how to tailor individual teaching and learning for individuals and education professionals.
Researchers found children are frequently affected by more than one learning disability and that specific learning disabilities co-occur more often than expected. For example, in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 33 to 45 percent also suffer from dyslexia and 11 percent from dyscalculia, a learning disability in mathematics.
Butterworth said the results showed there were many neurological development disorders that result in learning disabilities, even in children of normal or even high intelligence.
Specific learning disabilities arise from atypical brain development with complicated genetic and environmental factors, causing such conditions as dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.
In the study, researchers reviewed the neural and genetic basis for specific learning disabilities (SLD). They then clarified how these disabilities develop and how school psychologists, clinicians and teachers can improve teaching for individual learners.
The study suggests causes of SLDs are due to difficulties processing speech, language and numbers at a cognitive level.
From a neurological basis, evidence suggests each SLD is associated with an abnormality in a distinct neural network. A single neurophysiological cause may affect distinct regions in the brain, affecting an individual’s learning ability.
“We are also finally beginning to find effective ways to help learners with one or more SLDs, and although the majority of learners can usually adapt to the one-size-fits-all approach of whole class teaching, those with SLDs will need specialized support tailored to their unique combination of disabilities,” Butterworth said.
Source: University of Melbourne
Young student struggling with math photo by shutterstock.
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