Consequences of stroke in younger people are different than those older individuals experience, Elizabeth Tracey reports
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02 — 1.4MB)
Subscribe: RSS
When a stroke takes place in a person younger than fifty, not only may the usual deficits be present, but a host of others. Johns Hopkins stroke expert Michele Johansen describes what may follow.
Johansen: Stroke is a devastating disease. Stroke normally doesn’t kill you, but it leads to a great degree of deficit. Young adults have an increased risk of recurrent stroke, increased risk of post stroke seizures, which can happen because they’ve had a stroke, and it normally takes some time for that to occur. They are more susceptible to post stroke pain, you can actually get pain in the setting of stroke depending on what structures in the brain are involved. And depression. If you are working and you have children and you’re 42 years old, and you have a stroke it's very easy to get depressed. :33
Johansen says young adults should seek care at a comprehensive center accustomed to managing stroke in younger people if that’s possible. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.