Assessment of poststroke mania and diagnosis

Abstract

Maria Shoaib,1 Muhammad Aadil2 1Department of Medicine, DOW Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan; 2Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USAWe would like to applaud the authors of the case report “Post-stroke emotional incontinence or bipolar disorder?” which highlights a rare yet treatable condition of mania and emotional incontinence after a cerebrovascular accident. We would like to add our views regarding poststroke mania supporting the significant psychiatric distress patients suffer. As the review mentions, psychiatric sequelae of stroke and cerebrovascular disease include anxiety, psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and poststroke depression (PSD).1 This case report also mentions development of treatment response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which also shows that poststroke emotional incontinence is related predominantly to serotonergic system dysfunction.2View the original paper by Mnif and colleagues.

Keywords

• stroke
• emotional incontinence
• bipolar disorder