PREVALENCE OF THE COMORBIDITY OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN STROKE SURVIVORS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In the past research has shown that stroke survivors commonly experience fears and worries about their well-being. This study attempted to assess anxiety and depression as comorbid mental health conditions among stroke survivors, which can negatively affect treatment outcome as well as increase mortality. Two hypotheses were postulated and tested. The participants were 847 stroke survivors that comprised of 410 males and 437 females in the age range of 18 to 65 years (mean age=59.4, SD=10.37). The stroke survivors were selected by cluster sampling from one teaching hospital and five specialist hospitals in Kano State, North-West Nigeria and one teaching hospital in Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria.  Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered to each of the participants The study was multicenter and the design was cross sectional. The statistics used for the study was Chi-Square. The results indicated that a high proportion of stroke survivors present with comorbid anxiety and depression, which was significantly larger than those with no comorbid anxiety and depressive symptoms. There was no significant relationship between gender and comorbid anxiety and depressive symptoms. The study recommends that stroke survivors should always be referred first to clinical psychologist for screening of anxiety and depressive symptoms and possible psychotherapy. Therefore, government should increase the employment of clinical psychologist to work with other healthcare professionals in treating stroke survivors across the teaching hospitals in Nigeria.