In this article

Symptoms and warning signs

Your brain

Short and long-term effects

The physical damage stroke causes to the brain can have a wide range of effects. These will depend on the type of stroke and its severity, the part of the brain affected, the extent of brain damage and how quickly other brain cells take over the function of the damaged and dead ones. Around a third of strokes are fatal.

Effects may include:

• Weakness or paralysis, leading to difficulties with walking, movement or coordination. This often affects only one side of the body, known as hemiparesis or hemiplegia.
• Lack of feeling or loss of awareness of objects on one side of the body, known as left or right-sided neglect, depending on the side affected.
• Swallowing difficulties, which can cause trouble with eating or drinking. If this isn't managed, and food or liquid passes into the windpipe and lungs, it can result in chest infections such as pneumonia. Dehydration or constipation may also result.
• Speech or language difficulties, including difficulties in understanding, speaking (dysphasia, aphasia), reading, writing and calculation. Speech and language problems usually indicate damage to the left hemisphere of the brain.
• Problems of perception, including trouble recognising or being able to use everyday objects, difficulties telling the time and problems interpreting what the eyes see, even when vision isn't affected.
• Cognitive difficulties, including problems caused by damage to areas of the brain controlling mental processes such as thinking clearly and logically, learning, paying attention, memory, decision making and forward planning.
• Behaviour changes, which may include being slower to react than before the stroke, excessive caution, disorganisation, difficulties adjusting to change and becoming confused or irritated.
• Difficulties with bowel or bladder control (urinary or faecal incontinence). These may be caused by a variety of different problems following stroke and can often be considerably improved or overcome with medical help and physiotherapy.
• Fatigue. Although a recognised phenomenon, the reason for fatigue isn't fully understood. There may be sleep disturbance caused by damage to areas of the brain controlling the body's sleep-wake cycle. It could also be linked to depression.
• Mood changes, including mood swings, irritability and laughing or crying, even when you don't feel particularly happy or sad. Depression is extremely common, with symptoms such as loss of appetite, insomnia, crying, low self-esteem and anxiety.
• Post-stroke pain. A small number of people develop a burning, shooting, throbbing pain that won't respond to painkillers.
• Epilepsy affects around seven to 20 per cent of people who have strokes. This can usually be treated with anti-epileptic drugs.

This list may seem long and daunting, but most people who have strokes don't experience all of them. With time, patience and specialist help many can be treated, overcome or reduced.

Short-term effects disappear with time as any swelling in the brain goes down and the damaged cells surrounding the dead brain cells are repaired.

Long-term effects are caused by the death of brain tissue. They won't go away, but they can often be modified with rehabilitation.

This article was last medically reviewed by Dr Rob Hicks in July 2007.
First published in January 2000.