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(Stroke. 2009;40:e485.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cochrane Corner

Interventions for Preventing Depression After Stroke

Maree L. Hackett, PhD; Craig S. Anderson, PhD, FRACP, FAFPHM; Allan O. House, DM, MRCP, MRCPsych Christina Halteh, BPharm(Hons)

From the George Institute for International Health (M.L.H., C.S.A.), University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia; the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (A.O.H.), The University of Leeds, UK; and the NHMRC Clinical Trials Research Centre (C.H.), University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia.

Correspondence to Maree Hackett, The George Institute for International Health, PO Box M201, Missenden Road, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia. E-mail mhackett@george.org.au

Graeme J. Hankey MD, FRCP Section Editor:

Key Words: clinical trials • depression • prevention • meta-analysis

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Depression is a common and important consequence of stroke that impacts on recovery, yet we do little to prevent its development. Little is known about whether treatments started early after stroke will reduce the risk of developing depressive symptoms. This is an update of a Cochrane review we first published in 2004 to determine whether pharmaceutical or psychological interventions can prevent depression and improve physical and psychological outcomes in patients with stroke.¹

	Search Strategy

 
We searched the trials registers of the Cochrane Stroke Group (last searched October 2007) and the Cochrane Depression Anxiety and Neurosis Group (last searched February 2008). In addition, we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library, Issue 1, 2008), MEDLINE (1966 to May 2006), EMBASE (1980 to May 2006), CINAHL (1982 to May 2006), PsycINFO (1967 to May 2006), and other databases. We also searched reference lists, clinical trials registers, conference proceedings, and dissertation abstracts, and contacted authors, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies.

	Selection Criteria

 
We considered all truly randomized controlled trials comparing pharmaceutical agents with placebo, or psychotherapy against standard care (or attention control) to prevent depression in patients with stroke.

	Results

 
We identified fourteen trials involving 1515 participants at entry. Data were available for 10 pharmaceutical trials (12 comparisons) and 4 psychotherapy trials. The time from stroke to entry into a trial ranged from a few hours to 7 months, but most patients were recruited within 1 month of acute stroke. The duration of treatments ranged from 2 weeks to 1 year.

A statistically . . . [Full Text of this Article]