Monitoring of Electrodermal Activity in the Diagnosis of Stress in Stroke Patients (3 Clinical Case Reports)

BACKGROUND. Common consequences of stroke are disabling neurological deficits, pain, cognitive and affective disorders that cause distress in patients, but generally accepted diagnostic methods are not always successful in detecting it. Currently, there is an increasing accumulation of data that the assessment of the level of sympathetic activation according to the parameters of electrodermalic activity (EDA) is effective for the diagnosis of stressful conditions. AIM. To evaluate the possibility of objectification of stress by EDA parameters in stroke patients using examples of clinical observations. CASES DESCRIPTION. In addition to clinical and metric assessment, EDA was registered in 3m stroke patients (I69.3) at the beginning and at the end of rehabilitation. In the 1st observation, the stress level of EDA indicators initially coincided with high levels of anxiety and depression, the reduction of which at the end of rehabilitation to optimal values led to normalization of EDA. In the 2nd case, at the beginning and at the end of rehabilitation, despite minimal neurological deficit, absence of pain and affective disorders and any complaints, stress indicators of EDA were recorded, due to previously undiagnosed alexithymia and persistent psychosomatic disorder. In the 3rd observation, a patient with a pronounced neurological deficit, who made increased demands on herself, initially normal EDA indicators, at the end of rehabilitation, in the absence of any complaints, changed to stressful ones due to overtraining. CONCLUSION. The presented clinical observations can be useful for neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists, they demonstrate that taking into account ED indicators in a comprehensive assessment of the condition of stroke patients can increase the detection of stress and optimize rehabilitation measures.