Trial reportThe American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry2011
Effect of antidepressants on the course of disability following stroke.
Trial report in The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 102 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic-search-and-review of registered pharmacological therapies investigated to improve neuro-recovery after a stroke.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Safety and Efficacy of SSRIs in Improving Poststroke Recovery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Pooled it
- Is Fluoxetine Good for Subacute Stroke? A Meta-Analysis Evidenced From Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors to improve outcome in acute ischemic stroke: possible mechanisms and clinical evidence.Brain and behavior · 2015Pooled it
- Use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and risk of stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neurology · 2014Pooled it
- Fluoxetine to improve functional outcomes in patients after acute stroke: the FOCUS RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2020Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Increased frequency of first-episode poststroke depression after discontinuation of escitalopram.Stroke · 2011Trial
- Antidepressant drugs have pharmacological- and time-dependent effects on reinforcement learning in healthy volunteers: An 8 weeks randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Decreased hippocampal neurogenesis and post-stroke depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Post-stroke depression: exploring gut microbiota-mediated barrier dysfunction through immune regulation.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Innovative strategies for post-stroke depression: integrating traditional Chinese medicine with neurobiological insights, including the gut-brain axis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Assessing the effects of antidepressant use on stroke recurrence and related outcomes in ischemic stroke patients: a propensity score matched analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Dementia after Ischemic Stroke, from Molecular Biomarkers to Therapeutic Options.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- A sudden and severe depressive episode after a left cingulate gyrus stroke: a case report of post-stroke depression and review of literature.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2021Review
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for functional recovery after stroke: similarities with the critical period and the role of experience-dependent plasticity.Journal of neurology · 2021Review
- Neuronal protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B hinders sensory-motor functional recovery and causes affective disorders in two different focal ischemic stroke models.Neural regeneration research · 2021Article
- The Usefulness and Clinical Characteristics of Antidepressant Use for Stroke Patients with Rehabilitation Program: An Exploratory Analysis.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Article
- Identification of Potential Metabolite Markers for Middle-Aged Patients with Post-Stroke Depression Using Urine Metabolomics.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveStroke often produces marked physical and cognitive impairments leading to functional dependence, caregiver burden, and poor quality of life. We examined the course of disability during a 1-year follow-up period after stroke among patients who were administered antidepressants for 3 months compared to patients given placebo for 3 months.
methodsA total of 83 patients entered a double-blind randomized study of the efficacy of antidepressants to treat depressive disorders and reduce disability after stroke. Patients were assigned to either fluoxetine (N = 32), nortriptyline (N = 22) or placebo (N = 29). Psychiatric assessment included administration of the Present State Examination modified to identify DSM-IV symptoms of depression. The severity of depression was measured using the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The modified Rankin Scale was used to evaluate the disability of patients at initial evaluation and at quarterly follow-up visits for 1 year. Impairment in activities of daily living was assessed by Functional Independence Measure at the same time.
resultsDuring the 1-year follow-up period, and after adjusting for critical confounders including age, intensity of rehabilitation therapy, baseline stroke severity, and baseline Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, patients who received fluoxetine or nortriptyline had significantly greater improvement in modified Rankin Scale scores compared to patients who received placebo (t [156] = -3.17, p = 0.002).
conclusionsPatients treated with antidepressants had better recovery from disability by 1-year post stroke (i.e., 9 months after antidepressants were stopped) than patients who did not receive antidepressant therapy. This effect was independent of depression suggesting that antidepressants may facilitate the neural mechanisms of recovery in patients with stroke.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.