Effects of sertraline combined with attribution retraining in post-stroke depression and recovery of nerve function / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the effects of sertraline combined with attribution retraining in post-stroke depression and recovery of neurological function.Methods A total of seventy-eight patients with post-stroke depression were randomly divided into research group and control group.The research group was treated by sertraline combined with attribution retraining and the control group was treated by sertraline only for 8 weeks.Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and recovery of neurological functions using the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at baseline and at the end of the 24,44,64 and 84 week.Results Repeated measure ANOVA for the total scores of HAMD showed that the main effect of time,the main effect of group and the interactive effect of time and group were significant (P＜0.05).Total scores of HAMD in the research group were significantly lower than those in the control group at the end of the 2nd,44,64 and 84 week [(18.25±4.27) vs.(20.81±4.63),(15.94±3.47)vs.(18.12±4.51),(12.85±3.12) vs.(16.54±3.70),(10.42±3.66) vs.(13.09±3.59),P＜0.05].HAMD Total scores in two groups were showed significantly decreased on each time point after treatment (P＜0.01).Effective rates (using reduction rate of HAMD total scores as evaluation) were more significant in the research group than those in the control group at the end of the 8th week (77.5％ vs.52.6％,P＜0.05).The repeated measure ANOVA showed that the main effect of time in NIHSS total scores was significant (P＜0.01).The main effect of group and the interactive effect of time and group in NIHSS total scores were not significant (P＞0.05).Total scores of NIHSS in two groups significantly decreased on each time point after treatment (P＜0.01).Conclusions Sertraline combined with attribution retraining can significantly relieve post-stroke depression and attribution training does not have obvious effects on the recovery of neurological function.