Exercise soon after stroke may boost outlook

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If people who have had a stroke can be got out of bed and walking within 24 hours, their psychological well-being is likely to improve, according to an Australian study.

In the early period after stroke, patients are often kept in bed. However, this immobility may lead to depression, the research team notes in the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine.

In the AVERT study -- an acronym for A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial -- Dr. Toby B. Cumming at the National Stroke Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleagues tested the impact of early and frequent mobilization versus standard care on levels of depression and anxiety in 71 stroke patients.

The aim of early mobilization was to get patients out of bed at least twice a day within 24 hours of stroke onset.

On average, the people in the intervention group were up and about by 18 hours after the start of their stroke; in the standard care group, it took an average of 30 hours.

Seven days post-stroke, patients who were mobile early and often were less depressed and marginally less anxious than those who received standard care.

Cumming and colleagues point out in their report that post-stroke depression is a "major concern" and is associated with "less participation in rehabilitation, poorer rate and extent of recovery, and increased mortality."

These early results from the AVERT trial "suggest that increasing out-of-bed physical activity in the days following stroke can have a positive effect on a patient's mood," Cumming told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, September 2008.