Sertraline significantly reduced the incidence of poststroke depression (RR 0.48; 95% CI 0.35-0.67; P < .0001) and depression rating scores compared to control groups.
Meta-Analysis (n=1,258)
Does sertraline improve depression rating scores and reduce the incidence of poststroke depression in stroke patients?
Sertraline appears safe and may reduce the incidence of poststroke depression and improve depression scores, though sensitivity analyses suggest caution regarding the robustness of the efficacy findings.
Relative Risk: 0.48 (95% CI 0.35–0.67)
p-value: p=< .0001
BACKGROUND: Morbidity of poststroke depression (PSD) remains high worldwide. Additionally, PSD causes multiple sequelae. Although sertraline has been reported to be effective in treating PSD, many studies remain inconsistent. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Clinical trials. gov, Wan fang Data (Chinese), VIP (Chinese), and CNKI (Chinese) were retrieved from inception to April 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and self-controlled trials (SCTs) were recruited, which met the inclusion criteria in our study. The depression rating scores, the incidence of PSD, activities of daily living (ADL), neurological impairment scores, and adverse effects were assessed. RESULTS: Around 11 studies were recruited in our work, including 1258 participants. For trials enrolled, the results were depicted: the reduction of depression rating scores was significant in sertraline groups (WMD -6.38; 95% CI -8.63 to -4.14; P 0.05). However, in sensitivity analyses, the conclusions of the reduction of depression rating scores and the improvement of ADL were altered. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that sertraline has a potentially protective role compared with control groups and demonstrates sertraline is safe. However, the reduction of depression rating scores and the improvement of ADL should be considered carefully.
Feng et al. (Sat,) conducted a meta-analysis in Poststroke depression (n=1,258). Sertraline vs. Control groups was evaluated on Incidence of poststroke depression (RR 0.48, 95% CI 0.35-0.67, p=< .0001). Sertraline significantly reduced the incidence of poststroke depression (RR 0.48; 95% CI 0.35-0.67; P < .0001) and depression rating scores compared to control groups.