MedWire News: People who are depressed, or who have a history of depression, do not face an increased risk of suffering a stroke, researchers have found.
But the team did find significant evidence to suggest that a person's overall emotional health influences their risk of stroke.
Previous studies have shown that people who have suffered a stroke are at greater risk of becoming depressed than other people, explain Dr Paul Surtees, from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and colleagues.
But they add that it is not known whether people with a history of depression have a greater risk of stroke than those without such a history.
To investigate, the researchers enrolled more than 20,000 people who had not previously suffered a stroke. At the start of the study, all the participants completed questionnaires on their overall emotional health and their history of depression.
Over the course of the 8-year monitoring period, 595 participants suffered a stroke.
Analysis revealed that people with a history of depression, including those who had experienced an episode of depression in the past year, were no more likely to suffer a stroke than people without such a history.
However, the team found that an individual's emotional health was significantly associated with their risk of stroke. Indeed, each one-point increase on a scale of 'emotional distress' was associated with a 11% increased risk of stroke.
The findings remained true after accounting for smoking habits, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, diabetes, social class, education and a family history of stroke.
The researchers conclude that the findings "suggest that increased psychological distress is associated with elevated stroke risk. Episodic major depressive disorder was not associated with incident stroke in this study".
Dr Surtees added: "Understanding the mechanisms by which overall emotional health may increase stroke risk may inform stroke prevention and help identify those at increased stroke risk."
The research is published in the journal Neurology.