ABSTRACT
Depression following a stroke is a complex and controversial issue. Common sense suggests that so severe and devastating an illness must cause un-happiness, and many studies confirm and quantify this. Goodstein (1983) found that one-third of stroke victims became completely dependent. Most distressing was the element of the unexpected and the unpredictable. His subjects suffered from fear of another stroke, sexual guilt, and loss of dignity and self-esteem. Isaacs, Neville, and Rushford (1976) studied thirty-five patients, over a period of three years, after discharge from hospital following stroke. None of them ever used public transport, went to a hairdresser, a library, a cinema, a bingo hall, or other place of entertainment. Seven never left the house. None of the eleven who had been in full-time employment returned to work.
