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Risto Vataja

Publications and source records attributed to Risto Vataja.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Depression-executive dysfunction syndrome in stroke patients.

OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that executive dysfunction could be the core defect in patients with geriatric or vascular depression, and that this depression-dysexecutive syndrome (DES) might be related to frontal-subcortical circuit dysfunction. The authors tested this hypothesis in 158 poststroke patients, of whom 21 had both depression and executive dysfunction. METHODS: In this cross-sectional cohort study, a neurological, psychiatric, and neuropsychological examination was carried out 3 months after ischemic stroke, and brain infarcts, white-matter changes, and brain atrophy were recorded by MRI. RESULTS: The 21 patients with DES had significantly more brain infarcts affecting their frontal-subcortical circuit structures than the 137 patients without DES, or the 41 patients with depression but without executive dysfunction. Patients with DES also had more severe depressive symptoms and worse psychosocial functioning, and they coped less well in complex activities of daily living. CONCLUSIONS: DES is a valid concept and may define a subgroup of poststroke patients with frontal-subcortical pathology and with distinct prognosis and treatment options.

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PubMed2003

Generalized anxiety disorders three to four months after ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The main objective of our study was to detail the frequency and clinical determinants of poststroke generalized anxiety disorders in a large, well-defined stroke cohort. METHODS: A total of 277 stroke patients aged 55-85 were subjected to a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation between 3 and 4 months after ischemic stroke. Primary generalized anxiety disorder or generalized anxiety disorder due to stroke were diagnosed according to DSM-IV symptom criteria. RESULTS: The frequency of any generalized anxiety disorder was 20.6% (n = 57). According to a logistic model, any generalized anxiety disorder was associated with a history of epilepsy, comorbid depressive disorder, severity of depression, severity of anxiety, and the use of anxiolytic drugs. A discriminant analysis identified four factors that distinguished the two diagnostic subgroups from one another: the level of psychosocial functioning (worse score in patients with generalized anxiety due to stroke), a history of migraine, anterior circulation stroke localization (more frequent in patients with generalized anxiety disorder due to stroke), and a history of insomnia (more frequent in patients with primary generalized anxiety disorder). CONCLUSIONS: Clinically significant anxiety is common in ischemic stroke patients and may hamper their rehabilitation.

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