Implementation of prescheduled follow-ups with education improve poststroke depression screening compliance in routine clinical practice

Just why the fuck are we measuring the compliance of the doctors screening patients for depression rather than measuring the results of the protocols given to patients to prevent or treat depression? Something is terribly broken in the stroke research world. It is easy to explain. THERE IS NO FUCKING STROKE STRATEGY. No strategy, nothing useful will ever come out of stroke research.

Implementation of prescheduled follow-ups with education improve poststroke depression screening compliance in routine clinical practice

  Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation , Volume 99(11) , Pgs. 2198-2202.

NARIC Accession Number: J79841.  What's this?
ISSN: 0003-9993.
Author(s): Berg, Anu; Hujala, Maija; Kari, Pirkko; Tapiola, Tero.
Publication Year: 2018.
Number of Pages: 5.
Abstract: Study investigated the extent to which the mood of stroke patients is assessed and what kind of assessment methods are used in routine clinical practice, and whether prescheduled follow-ups including depression screening, improved compliance with screening and detecting depression. A follow-up system was implemented for all stroke patients referred to the Neurological Unit at the South Karelia Central Hospital in Finland. Each stroke patient was assigned 2 prescheduled appointments, the first at 3 months and the second at 6 months after the stroke. The study retrospectively screened all patients diagnosed with an acute stroke before and after implementing the systematized follow-up plan. Screening took place in the first half of 2010 and then again, after the implementation of the follow-up system, in the first half of 2012. After exclusion of patients too severely ill to be interviewed, there were 105 patients in the 2010 sample and 112 patients in the 2012 sample. Outcomes included the percentage and quality of mood assessments in the medical records; and the stroke patients’ depressive symptoms and their satisfaction with their care. In the 2010 sample, 48 patients (47 percent) had documentation of mood in their medical records. After the implementation of prescheduled follow-ups, 86 patients (77 percent) had documented moods. The increase was highly significant. During the early outpatient phase, the use of interviews increased from 14 to 45 percent of the patients. The increase in the satisfaction with care did not reach statistical significance. Depressive symptoms recorded at any time were associated with depressive symptoms at 18 months. Findings suggest prescheduled follow-ups for all stroke patients, including routine depression screening, can remarkably improve the compliance with depression screening and the detection of depression.