Poststroke depression often poorly managed

"I do think that ongoing monitoring of treatment and adjustment of medications is really fundamental to patients having good outcomes," she said.

A hot topic in the stroke literature in recent years has been whether it makes sense to simply initiate prophylactic antidepressant therapy in all poststroke patients as a means of preventing a full-blown depressive episode. "My answer is, ‘Not yet,’ " she said, noting that the randomized trials to date looking at this approach have been small and have yielded conflicting results.

Dr. Williams reported having no relevant financial conflicts.

bjancin@frontlinemedcom.com