Is poststroke depression a vascular depression?

As we learn more about the relationships between depression and cerebrovascular disease (CVD), a complex picture is emerging in which the chain of causality seems to spiral on itself. progressive or focal brain damage, cognitive impairment, depressive symptoms, dementia, and cardiovascular diseases, all seem to be liable to lead to one or another. Stroke may lead to depression, and the inverse may also be true. Depression may lead to cognitive impairment and cardiovascular diseases, which in turn may lead to subtle brain impairment, thereby causing more depression and cognitive impairments, and so on. In this presentation, we provide a rapid glance at the complexities of such issues. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.