The mediating effect of psychological distress on functional dependence in stroke patients

Abstract

By understanding the nature of various forms of psychological distress, healthcare professionals should adopt appropriate assessment instruments and design effective interventions to help improve mental and physical function of stroke patients.

Severity of Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment Moderates the Relationship Between Cognitive Change and Emotional Distress in the Months Following Stroke

“…With regards to the second hypothesis, findings suggest that greater awareness of cognitive impairment is strongly associated with increased distress, in line with previous work in various ABI samples (Boosman et al, 2014;Geytenbeek et al, 2017;Mitrushina & Tomaszewski, 2020;Morton & Barker, 2010). Moreover, findings suggest that BI is a negative predictor of emotional distress in accordance with previous research, indicating that the more independent an individual is with their activities of daily living, the less likely they are to report clinically significant symptoms of anxiety or low mood (Huang et al, 2014;Park et al, 2012). These findings may be explained by the relationship between 'threat-toself', 'self-discrepancy', and emotional distress prescribed by the Y-shaped model.…”

Anger and stroke: a potential association that deserves serious consideration

“…Eight papers were from the United States (8,14,15,17,21,22,27,29), three from South Korea (24,28,30) and two from Italy (25,33) and Switzerland (23,26), whereas other countries contributed with one paper each: Israel (20), Portugal (25), Japan (16), Canada (18), Taiwan (32) and India (19). Eight studies were observational (19,20,22,24–26,30,32); four were case-control studies (21,27,31,33); one was longitudinal over 4 days (23) and six were population-based epidemiological studies (8,14–18). Two studies were clinical trials for specific treatment of psychological disorders after the stroke (28,29).…”

“…The most frequently used tool for assessing anger was the ‘Spielberger Anger Expression Scales’, which were used in nine studies (14–17,24,28–31). Other papers made use of the ‘Onset Anger Scale’ (19), ‘Stroke Risk Calculator’ (18), ‘Emotional and Social Dysfunction Questionnaire’ (32), ‘Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale’ (33), ‘Attachment Style Questionnaire’ (33), ‘Catastrophic Reaction Scale’ (25), ‘Mania Rating Scale’ (25), ‘Emotional Behavior Index’ (26), ‘Comprehensive Psychopathologic Rating Scale’ (25) and also scales that had been specifically designed for that particular study (8,20–23,27). All of the scales were used either separately or in association with each other in the different studies.…”

“…The conflicting observations of this review were that anger traits were often reported as being remarkably associated with higher risk of stroke (8,14), or not (17,19). In fact, one study showed that moderate anger can be a protective factor against stroke (15), and others reported that the trait of anger is not a frequently felt feature observed after a stroke (23,32). These findings may reflect results from papers with various methodological approaches, with different populations of patients, and with a mixture of outcomes assessed by some studies but not by others.…”

“…Data on patients who presented a stroke in different continents may generate further confounders, since there is no uniform health system care for these patients. The Table summarises data from patients with a stroke seen at the USA (21,22,27,29), Europe (23,25,26,31,33) and Asia (24,28,32). Cultural, dietary and religious habits from these different continents may render the results extremely difficult to compare when the outcome is the ‘feeling’ of anger.…”