Suffering a stroke can have a major impact on how our emotions work and these effects can last at least 18 months, new research suggests.

Every year in Ireland, some 10,000 people suffer a stroke. While much is known about the physical effects of a stroke, less is known about the emotional effects. UK researchers decided to look into this further by assessing how emotion regulation is affected by a stroke.

According to Dr Clare Cooper of the University of Aberdeen, emotion regulation is essential for everybody and is used ‘every second of every day'.

"It is about recognising what we are feeling and what we can do to cope if we feel distressed. For example we might count to 10 or rant to a friend, thereby enabling us to continue with our daily lives.

"Following stroke, emotion regulation may be impaired and patients may struggle to understand and cope with their own emotions. They can sometimes experience their emotions as overwhelming and feel as if their emotions are running them rather than other way round. This can seriously limit the degree to which patients are able to live their life to the fullest," she said.

She pointed out that this is the first study to investigate in detail how a stroke can affect emotion regulation.

The researchers interviewed people six weeks after they had suffered a stroke, and again 18 months later. Their answers were compared to answers given by people who had not suffered a stroke.

All were asked about emotion regulation, which included topics such as emotional awareness and impulsivity. They were also asked about their levels of social participation, such as seeing family and friends and attending social events.

"Our results showed that at six weeks post-stroke, patients showed impairments in emotion regulation that were related to reduced social participation compared to a control group.

"At 18 months post-stroke there was still an association between the ability to regulate emotion and social participation, which was apparent even when other factors such as low mood and mobility problems had been accounted for," Dr Cooper said.

She believes that these findings show that after a stroke, some patients may have long-term problems with the regulation of their emotions ‘and this may affect their ability to participate socially'.

She called for further research in this area to better understand how emotion regulation is affected by stroke and how patients might be helped to cope.

Details of these findings are published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology.