This study is going to comprehensively examine the psychometric properties of the three depression scales (Hamilton depression scale (HAMD), Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)) in stroke patients over a period of three years.

This study will be divided into two parts. In the first part, we will spend 3 years in recruiting 200 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of first stroke onset to compare the validity, responsiveness, and acceptability of the HAMD, HADS, and BDI. All patients will be assessed using the three depression scales and other functional measures at 14, 30, 90, 180, and 365 days after stroke.

In the second part, the inter-rater reliability of the three depression scales will be examined in the first year. Sixty chronic stroke patients will be recruited in the study.

Furthermore, the other 60 chronic stroke patients will be recruited in the second year for examining the test-retest reliability and measurement error of the three depression scales.

This study would be the first one to systematically compare the psychometric properties of the three depression scales in a long-term follow up study.

The results of the study will be able to help clinicians and researchers select the most suitable depression scales for stroke patients. The results will also provide us references to develop a new depression scale, if needed, for stroke patients.