Deans' stroke musings: Association between early depressive symptoms after stroke and trajectories of functional recovery among patients with acute ischemic stroke: a longitudinal study

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Association between early depressive symptoms after stroke and trajectories of functional recovery among patients with acute ischemic stroke: a longitudinal study

'Associations' DO NOTHING FOR SURVIVOR RECOVERY! Are you that blitheringly stupid you don't know that survivors would like recovery rather than a completely fucking useless 'association'?

Association between early depressive symptoms after stroke and trajectories of functional recovery among patients with acute ischemic stroke: a longitudinal study

Fanfan Li¹^†

Xingjin Song^1,2^†

Cuicui Zhang^1,3^†

Chi Peng⁴

Ting Hu¹

Xiue Wei¹^*

Liangqun Rong¹^*

Haiyan Liu¹^*

¹Department of Neurology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
²Graduate School of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
³Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
⁴Department of Emergency, Changhai Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China

Background: Depressive symptoms are very common in the acute phase of stroke; however, its impact on distinct functional recovery trajectories in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients remains unclear. Our study aimed to depict the functional recovery trajectories within 6 months after stroke and explore the association of early depressive symptoms with these recovery patterns among AIS patients.

Methods: A total of 219 eligible patients were enrolled at the stroke centers of two tertiary hospitals in Xuzhou, China from April 2023 to June 2024. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was used to assess depressive symptoms during the acute hospitalization. The Group-based trajectory model was conducted to identify distinct trajectories of functional recovery, as measured by modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and Barthel Index (BI) at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. A series of multinomial logistic regression models were performed to examine the relationship between early depressive symptoms and dynamic recovery patterns.

Results: We identified 3 mRS trajectories (mild, moderate, and severe) and 5 BI trajectories (low-rapid rise, moderate low-stable, moderate-progressive rise, moderate high-rapid decline, and high-stable), respectively. After full adjustments, patients with early depressive symptoms were at increased likelihood of being in the moderate (OR 8.22, 95% CI 2.77–24.39) and severe (OR 24.41, 95% CI 5.33–111.90) trajectory group for mRS trajectories, and of the moderate high-rapid decline (OR 12.93, 95% CI 1.49–112.42) trajectory group for BI trajectories ( p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Early depressive symptoms were associated with unfavorable functional recovery trajectories within 6 months following acute stroke in AIS patients.