title: Correlations between Pre-morbid Personality and Depression Scales in Stroke Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the correlation between pre-morbid personality and depression scales in patients with stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects of this study included 45 patients with stroke and their caregivers. We conducted an interview of patients with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and also evaluated general characteristic (age, sex, location of lesion, cause of stroke, duration of illness, educational background, history of medication for depression) and functional level. Caregivers were evaluated with Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) for depressive mood, with NEO-PI (Neuroticism, Extraversion and Openness Personality Inventory) for pre-morbid personality. The results of each questionnaire were analyzed in order to investigate their correlation. The results were statistically analyzed with independent t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The HRSD score of the caregivers had a significant correlation with the BDI score (p=0.001) of the patients. The BDI score correlated with Neuroticism (p=0.021) and the HRSD score also correlated with Neuroticism (p=0.015). There were no statistical correlation of depression with sex, age, case of stroke, location of lesion, duration of illness and functional level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among pre-morbid personalities, neuroticism of NEO-PI is the only factor which is significantly correlated with depression scales in stroke patients. Evaluating pre-morbid personality can be helpful in predicting the depressive mood in stroke patients, so we may have early intervention for it.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, National Rehabilitation Center, Seoul 142-070, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Il
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Kyung In
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Oak Tae
authors.initials: OT
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Si-Woon
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Eun Seok
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Sook-Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yi