The purpose of this study was to use meta-analysis to evaluate the variables related to depression in patients who have had a stroke.

The materials of this study were based on 16 variables obtained from 26 recent studies over a span of 10 years which were selected from doctoral dissertations, master's thesis and published articles.

Related variables were categorized into sixteen variables and six variable groups which included general characteristics of the patients, disease characteristics, psychological state, physical function, basic needs, and social variables. Also, the classification of six defensive and three risk variables group was based on the negative or positive effect of depression. The quality of life (ES= -.79) and acceptance of disability (ES=-.64) were highly correlated with depression in terms of defensive variables. For risk variables, anxiety (ES= .66), stress (ES= .53) showed high correlation effect size among the risk variables.

These findings showed that defensive and risk variables were related to depression among stroke patients. Psychological interventions and improvement in physical functions should be effective in decreasing depression among stroke patients.