Unconventional affective symptoms and executive functions after stroke in the elderly

In the present study we assessed the presence and severity of unconventional affective symptoms (apathy, anhedonia and emotional lability) and depression in 33 elderly patients with first ever stroke and evidence of a single supratentorial lesion at neuroimaging.Patients were submitted to neurological, functional, and affective assessment at a mean interval of 2 weeks after stroke onset. Given the putative role of the frontal lobes in the pathogenesis of these symptoms, we also performed a cognitive assessment focused on executive functions. The prevalence of the various affective symptoms was as follows:apathy 15.2 %, anhedonia 6.1 %, emotional lability 48.5 %, depression 57.6 % of cases.Patients had a normal global cognitive level (mean short portable mental status questionnaire: 8.4 +/- 1.0, range 7-10). Apathy and anhedonia showed significant reciprocal correlations and they were also correlated with the executive score and the Barthel index;apathy was also correlated with depression; emotional lability, instead, was correlated only with depression. The study of possible anatomo-functional correlates between unconventional affective symptoms and lesion site did not show significant differences (stroke in the right versus left hemisphere, anterior versus posterior and cortical versus subcortical locations).