Background and purpose: The constant increase in health costs in recent years has led to the introduction of instruments such as DRG--diagnosis-related groups--with the declared aim of best rationalizing in-hospital costs. As part of this rationalisation it has become necessary to identify the causes of prolonged admissions in health-care structures. As far as concerns the rehabilitation of cerebrovascular diseases, attention has been centred on the presence of post-stroke depression. Our study was aimed at analysing the effect of depression on the time spent in hospital and whether the depression also affected on the patient's potential for functional recovery.
Methods: Patients with acute cerebrovascular lesions admitted to our center for rehabilitation were enrolled in this study. Depressive syndromes and functional deficits were evaluated at admission and discharge.
Results and conclusions: The most depressed patients were those who spent a longer time in hospital, but they were also those who had a greater functional deficit. The depression did not affect the efficacy and efficiency of the rehabilitation treatment. The time spent in hospital did, however, correlate with the clinical condition of the patient at admission and the age of the lesion.