Depressive symptoms and risk of stroke: the Framingham Study.

Background and Purpose— Emerging evidence raises the possibility of an association between depression and stroke risk. This study sought to examine whether depressive symptoms are associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular events in a community-based sample. Methods— A prospective study was conducted on 4120 Framingham Heart Study participants aged 29 to 100 years with up to 8 years of follow-up. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms. Incident stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) events were assessed by uniform diagnostic criteria. The association between depressive symptoms and risk of stroke/TIA was analyzed with Cox proportional-hazards models, after adjusting for traditional stroke risk factors. Results— In participants <65 years, the risk of developing stroke/TIA was 4.21 times greater (P=<0.001) in those with symptoms of depression. After adjusting for components of the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (hazard ratio=3.43, 95% CI=1...