Accelerated and Persistent Decline in Cognitive Ability For Years After Stroke

In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from the University of Michigan Health System analyzed cognitive impairment over the years after participants suffered a stroke, and then compared it to their pre-stroke rate of memory and thinking ability. “We found that stroke is associated with cognitive decline over the long-term,” said the lead author of the study. “That is, survivors had accelerated and persistent declines in memory and thinking ability during the years after stroke — even after accounting for their cognitive changes before and early after the event.” Participants had no history of cognitive impairment when they entered the large population-based study in the mid-2000s. In the six to 10 years after, 515 participants had a stroke, and researchers compared their test results with those from the other 23,057 participants who remained stroke-free. Because they had information on how stroke survivors’ memory and thinking ability changed over time before the stroke, the research team was able to separate the declines in brain function associated with aging from declines in brain function associated with stroke. In their study, stroke was associated with declines in global cognition, new learning, and verbal memory early after stroke as well as accelerated and persistent declines in global cognition and thinking ability over the years after the event. To read more about this study, click here.