This study examined the relationship between post-stroke lesion size and
location and depressed mood by using data from the multicenter National
Stroke Data Bank. For in patients with first-ever cerebral infarction,
lesions were characterized by location and size from CT scans. Forty-seven
(24%) of the 193 patients studied were depressed. In the complete sample,
neither lesion size nor location was associated with depression. However,
among patients with comparable small-sized lesions (n = 124), depression
was more frequent among those with left hemisphere stroke than those with
right hemisphere stroke (31% vs. 16%; P = 0.04). Among patients with larger
lesions, brain edema was common and may have obscured lateralized findings.
Different biogenic amine neurotransmitter responses to right and left
hemisphere brain injury may underlie this mood asymmetry.Abstract Teaser