{{One in 12 stroke survivors thought about suicide or that they would be better off dead, a troubling federal survey reveals. }} <\/p>\n
That’s more than those with other health problems such as heart attacks or cancer, and it suggests that depression after stroke is more serious than many had realized.<\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
“When patients have their depression treated they’re more motivated to take their medication, do therapy and live a full life.”<\/p>\n
The study was discussed Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 one sign of how serious it is.<\/p>\n
“It’s not necessarily active suicidal thoughts with a plan, but perhaps wishing you hadn’t survived the event,” Towfighi explained.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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?”<\/p>\n
About 8% of stroke survivors reported such thoughts, compared to 6 percent of heart attack survivors, 5% of those with diabetes and 4% with cancer.<\/p>\n
Suicidal thoughts were more likely in people who scored high on depression tests, were younger, overweight, less educated, poor, female or unmarried.<\/p>\n
Depression may develop partly because strokes damage the very thing that controls mood \u2014 the brain, said a neurologist with no role in the study, Dr. Brian Silver of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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