Psychiatric symptoms are the complications most often ignored in patients who suffered a stroke. Depression is the most common psychiatric complication in post-stroke patients with a prevalence of about 20–50% in the first year and with a peak in first six months after the stroke. Depression in turn, constitutes itself a factor of cerebrovascular risk. Despite its high prevalence this disorder remains under diagnosed and under treated. One explanation for this fact is that depressive symptoms are often misinterpreted as consequences of stroke itself. This reality is even more striking in patients with aphasia. Poststroke depression (PSD) results from the interaction between biological, as the location of the stroke, social and psychological factors. The presence of this disorder is associated with deleterious consequences for rehabilitation process. These patients suffer more often from attention deficits, cognitive difficulties, lower response to rehabilitation programs, poor quality of life and increased mortality.

To review epidemiology, pathogenesis, risk factors, consequences and current recommendations for therapeutic intervention.

Medline/Pubmed database search using the terms poststroke depression, depression and stroke, depression and cerebral vascular accident, stroke patients, published in the last 16years.

The treatment of PSD has been shown effective in improving the evolution and prognosis of these patients, therefore it is very important early diagnosis.