Depression-Executive Dysfunction Syndrome Relates to Poor Poststroke Survival

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of poststroke depression and executive dysfunction on long-term survival after acute stroke. Methods A total of 257 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients were included in the study and followed up to 12 years. Depression was diagnosed 3 months after stroke in 99 patients (38.5%). Findings In Kaplan-Meier analysis, there was no difference in survival of patients with and without poststroke depression (8.7 versus 8.3 years). Instead, patients with both depression and executive dysfunction had shorter median survival than patients with neither depression nor executive dysfunction (6.6 versus 10.3 years). Comparison between all patients with executive dysfunction and patients without it, not regarding depressive status, showed that executive dysfunction in itself was strongly associated with poor poststroke survival (6.4 versus 10.6 years). In stepwise Cox regression proportional hazards analysis adjusted with covariates, poststroke depression with executive dysfunction (hazard ratio [HR] 1.63) and advanced age (HR 1.11) remained as independent predictors of poor long-term survival. Interpretation The authors' well-defined poststroke cohort with long-term follow-up indicates that in poststroke depression, the depression–executive dysfunction syndrome is the predictor of poor long-term survival rather than depression in itself.