Prozac counters emotional turmoil after stroke

By John M Grohol PsyD
January 16, 2006

The antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) may help relieve certain emotional disturbances in patients who’ve suffered a stroke, Korean researchers report. As senior investigator Dr. Jong S. Kim told Reuters Health, Prozac significantly improved “emotional incontinence and anger proneness, but not depression.”

There have been few controlled studies of so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac in patients with stroke-related emotional disturbance. Most attention has been given to post-stroke depression, but recent studies have suggested that post-stroke emotional incontinence or anger proneness is also common.

Kim, of Asan Medical Center, Seoul, and colleagues, randomly assigned 152 stroke patients who met criteria for post-stroke depression, emotional incontinence or proneness to anger to Prozac (20 mg daily) or to placebo for 3 months.

Patients taking Prozac showed significant improvement in measures of emotional incontinence and proneness to anger. Reduction in propensity for anger continued to be seen even 3 months after discontinuation of the drug. However, there was no definitive improvement in poststroke depression.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.