Single System Design

Single System Design

Introduction

Depression is one of the major problems that are caused by stroke. The occurrence of depression after the stroke is different according to different studies but almost one fourth of the patients develop depression after stroke (Aben, 2004). The depression that takes place after the stroke does not holds a good outcome. It can cause higher risks of death and severe cognitive deficiency which can cause higher risks of death (Rasquin, Lodder, & Verhey, 2005). The post stroke depression has become a clinical issue and several studies of the treatment of depression after stroke are based on the intervention of medicines (Hackett, Anderson, & House, 2004). There are not many studies on the psychological interventions. The treatment of the symptoms of depression focuses on those behavioral and cognitive principles which have been effective for the treatment of other diseases like diabetes or cancer (Cuijpers, 1998). A psychological intervention study was conducted for the treatment of depression of stroke and it was based on the aspects like planning of behavioral and joyful activities, challenging and identification of negative thoughts were also conversed with the patients (Lincoln, Flanaghan, Sutcliffe, & Rother, 1997). The conflicting results were obtained after the investigation of the effectiveness of this above explained program.

Evidence based study

A large randomized controlled trail was conducted and it was shown that among the participants 40 patients were provided with the cognitive intervention, 40 were provided with the standard care and 43 were in the placebo condition. There was no significant difference found in care satisfaction, mood and instrumental daily activities. Another randomized study was conducted with a control group and it had the patients with moderate and mild damage to the brain who are living in the community (11 were in the test group and 9 controls), the individual behavioural therapy was combined with the individual cognitive remediation and the cognitive functioning and psychological distress was also reduced (Tiersky et al., 2005).

It was not possible to identify the most beneficial intervention. It has been investigated by several studies about the possibilities of prevention of depression after stroke (Watkins et al., 2007). In all the studies there was a significant reduction the psychological distress and it was identified by making use of several health questionnaires but the results were not identified by the standard diagnosis of depression. Several interventions in the studies are not according to the psychological models but they are based on the contact types in terms of other disciplines to give information and support.

The symptoms of depression have enhanced the risk of the development of the disorder of depression (Cuijpers & Smit, 2004). The treatment of all these symptoms at an early stage can decrease the development of other severe symptoms but there is a less amount of information available about the viability of the intervention of the cognitive behavior for the patients of stroke. The main objective to design this study is to find out that does any cognitive behavioral intervention which ...