Stroke has multiple sequelae; the majority of patients develop depression following stroke. 

A recent study explored the efficacy of escitalopram in poststroke depression (PSD). The study entailed retrieval of data from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Clinical trials. gov, Wan fang Data (Chinese), VIP (Chinese), and CNKI (Chinese) databases. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) meeting the inclusion criteria were selected.

Overall, 11 studies with 1,374 participants were included. The results showed that marked reduction of depression rating scores in the escitalopram groups. The standard mean difference (SMD) was 1.25; the risk ratio (RR) of PSD incidence was 0.52––which was notably lower in the escitalopram groups. The findings indicated that escitalopram is safe for stroke patients and conferred improvements in motor function. 

It was inferred that escitalopram can be a potent treatment modality for stroke patients with a satisfactory safety profile.