Stroke represents the third most frequent cause of mortality in developed countries, following only coronary heart diseases and cancer. Post-Stroke Depression (PSD) is extremely common among stroke survivors, and it may have great burden on the likelihood of functional recovery and long-term outcomes. We hypothesized that PSD is related to a higher rate of mortality among people suffering from a stroke.

To estimate the risk of mortality among subjects suffering from PSD as compared with stroke survivors who did not suffer from PSD.

We performed a systematic review of papers indexed in Pubmed. Both fixed and random-effects methods for estimating association and time-to-event pooled effects were used. The presence and the level of heterogeneity were assessed using Q test and I² statistic.

Seven papers had data suitable for meta-analysis. The pooled association effect for mortality at follow-up in people with PSD were statistically significant (p<0.05). The time-to-event estimation showed a statistically significant correlation exclusively under the fixed effect analysis.

These findings pointed out the potential burden of PSD on post stroke mortality. Further investigation is required to clarify the nature of PSD/mortality association.