Association between post-stroke depression and post-stroke sleep disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Post-stroke depression (PSD) and post-stroke sleep disorders (PSSD) are common concurrent symptoms in post-stroke patients, and their early detection may have an impact on stroke recovery and prognosis. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between PSD and PSSD.

We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, APA PsycInfo, Medline, Scopus, Technology Periodical Database (VIP), China Biology Medicine (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and WanFang Data databases for studies on the association between PSD and PSSD, with a search timeframe ranging from database construction to May 9, 2024, two researchers independently performed literature search, screening and quality assessment, and RevMan (version 5.4) and Stata (version 15.1) software were used for statistical analysis.

We included 16 studies, nine in Chinese and seven in English, with 2,284 stroke patients. The results showed that the pooled Fisher's Z was 0.58 (95% CI = 0.52–0.65, P < 0.00001). After data transformation, the pooled r-value was 0.52, indicating a positive correlation between PSD and PSSD.

The available evidence suggested that PSD was positively correlated with PSSD. Given the correlation between PSD and PSSD, alleviating PSSD may reduce the incidence of PSD, and improving PSD may also improve patients' sleep quality.