Pathophysiology and Current Drug Treatments for Post-Stroke Depression: A Review

Post-stroke depression (PSD) is a biopsychosocial disorder that affects individuals who have suffered a stroke at any point. PSD has a 20 to 60 percent reported prevalence among stroke survivors. Its effects are usually adverse, can lead to disability, and may increase mortality if not managed or treated early. PSD is linked to several other medical conditions, including anxiety, hyper-locomotor activity, and poor functional recovery. Despite significant awareness of its adverse impacts, understanding the pathogenesis of PSD has proved challenging. The exact pathophysiology of PSD is unknown, yet its complexity has been definitively shown, involving mechanisms such as dysfunction of monoamine, the glutamatergic systems, the gut-brain axis, and neuroinflammation. The current effectiveness of PSD treatment is about 30–40 percent of all cases. In this review, we examined different pathophysiological mechanisms and current pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches for the treatment of PSD.