Post-
stroke depression is a common neuropsychiatric
affective disorder that may develop after a
stroke event. In addition to abnormalities in the
biogenic amine neurotransmitters and
cytokine expression induced by
stroke we will focus on the role of oxidative stress and hypothesize that
polyphenols may be useful as
therapeutics targets for the treatment of post-
stroke depression. In this paper, we discuss the hypothesis that increased oxidative stress in cerebral tissues during
ischemia is implicated in the pathogenesis of depressive-like symptoms following
stroke. There is substantive evidence regarding the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of both
stroke and depression, which provides support to this hypothesis.
Reactive oxygen species, generated during
stroke, cause oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation,
protein oxidation, and DNA damage in neural tissues. The resultant pathophysiological processes in the neural tissues could be considered a leading mechanism in the induction of post-
stroke depression.
Antioxidants including
polyphenols therefore, may play an important role in the outcomes of
ischemia and
stroke, due to their ability to protect neurons against oxidative stress, to mitigate ischemic damage via inhibition of lipid peroxidation and ability to interact with the generation of
nitric oxide from the vascular endothelium, and also to decrease
inflammation. These data suggest that
polyphenols may therefore be a useful new therapeutic target for the treatment of post-
stroke depression.