Psychological Reactions to Ischemic Stroke in the Young

Aims: To analyze various degrees of psychological status of ischemic stroke in the young population with different age, sex, degrees of education, injured regions and ways of medical expense payment. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Neurology, People’s Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Department of Rehabilitation, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University Medical College, between March 2008 and March 2010. Methodology: We included 90 patients (58 men, 32 women; age range 21-45 years) with ischemic stroke. Psychological distress was evaluated with Symptom Distress Checklist (SCL-90, Chinese version). The 90 patients with ischemic stroke at the acute stage have completed the SCL-90 and the scores were analyzed statistically against the national Norm of China. Results: Compared with the national norm of China, there were great differences in almost all aspects such as depression, anxiety, somatization, phobia and psychoticism (P <0.01, P<0.001, respectively) except for obsessiveness-compulsiveness, hostility and paranoid ideation (P>0.05 respectively). Among 90 stroke patients, the occurrence of Depression/Anxiety was 39 (43.33%). Female patients took up 75%, while male for 25% (P<0.01). Education levels made no difference (P > 0.05). Different payments brought out marked differences; the occurrence of Depression/Anxiety was 29.2% for the group where the medical expense paid by medical insurance, but 66.7% paid at one’s own expense (P< 0.05). Different injured regions brought out marked difference in the psychological reaction (P< 0.05), the occurrence of Depression/Anxiety was 75% with bilateral hemispheres injures. Conclusion: The psychological reactions of the young to the ischemic stroke are depression, anxiety, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, phobic anxiety, and psychoticism except for obsessive-compulsiveness, hostility and paranoid ideation. Ischemic stroke in the young of different sex, payment method and injured regions resulted in different psychological reactions.