Excerpted from "Behavior Changes After Stroke," appearing in the Stroke Connection Magazine January/February 2005.

Some survivors experience apathy and don’t seem to care about anything. “People often mistake this for depression because survivors are content to sit and stare at the wall all day,” says Dr. Spradlin. “The best response is to get them active and moving. Give them a choice of what to do or where to go, but make it clear they have to choose to do something, they can’t just lie in bed.” (See Distinquishing Between Apathy & Depression)

Other survivors experience neglect, an attentional disorder in which the patient does not pay attention to things on one side of the body. Neglect can run the gamut from someone who doesn’t recognize paralyzed limbs as their own to those who ignore food on one side of the plate or words on one side of the page. Neglect occurs most often in right-hemisphere strokes and thus results in inattention to the left side.

Of course, driving is extremely dangerous for anyone with this disorder.

Family members can help survivors by encouraging them to pay attention to the neglected side. For instance, talking to them from their affected side helps them to focus and concentrate on that side. Stimulation and encouragement to use the neglected side also helps decrease their neglect.

Another personality change that occurs after stroke is impulsiveness. “Survivors with this disorder are unable to think ahead,” says Dr. Spradlin. “They may move too quickly, or get behind the wheel when they have left-side neglect. We see this more in people with right-side or frontal lobe strokes.”

More on one-side neglect