Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the quality and analyze the contents of the clinical practice guidelines on Post-Stroke Depression (PSD), and to provide references for nursing clinical practice for patients with PSD in China. Methods: Systematically searching of domestic and foreign guideline websites and databases related to PSD was conducted. The quality of the guidelines related to PSD was screened and evaluated using the AGREE II and the content of included guidelines was analyzed, therefore to reach combined and integrated recommendations for nursing clinical practice related to care of patients with PSD. Results: We identified seven guidelines, of which six were in English and one was in Chinese. For the overall quality, three of them were ranked as grade A and four as grade B. A total of 26 recommendations were sorted out. Conclusion: There are various guidelines for care of stroke patients having been published both nationally and internationally, which involved those with PSD. However, the guidelines have not been systematically summarized. We should customize the clinical nursing practice for PSD based on local clinical environment as soon as possible to improve the depression level of patients with PSD.

Key words: Post-Stroke Depression; stroke; depression; clinical practice guidelines; quality evaluation; content analysis