- The other thing I would like to tell patients, is that post-stroke depression is common and it's treatable. A lot of patients feel like, well I had a stroke, my life isn't the same as it was before, of course I'm depressed. I just need to deal with it. But what we've shown in studies, is if you actually treat it with medications and with psychological support, it gets better and functional recovery can also get better. So, it's really important for patients to not try to just wait it out, but to seek help and to look into ways to treat the depression, because it's treatable. The other concern that patients have about depression, when faced with taking medications, is that they're worried about becoming dependent on a medication. And what I usually tell my patients is, well if you had high blood pressure you would take a medication to treat the blood pressure. So why should depression be any different? And if you need the medication and it makes you feel more like yourself, then it's worthwhile trying it.