BACKGROUND: Patients with acute stroke mostly receive treatment in the integrative hospital, but quite a large part of them were treated only with medication during the earlier stage.OBJECTIVE: To probe the influence of earlier integrative rehabilitations on emotions and daily life capability of patients with acute stroke with the outcomes compared with those unexposed to rehabilitative treatment.DESIGN: Randomized controlled study.SETTING: Neurological Department of a municipal Hospital.PARTICIPANTS: Eighty patients who received treatment due to the first onset of acute stroke of internal carotid system were selected from the Neurological Department of the First People's Hospital of Lianyungang City, Jiangshu Province between January 2002 and August 2003. Totally 51 males and 29 females aged (63.42±7.47) years were randomly divided into rehabilitation control group with 40 cases each.METHODS: Patients of the two groups received routine neurological medication in the hospital. When stroke was controlled, patients in the rehabilitative group (including patients with cerebral infarction who were hospitalized for less than 1 week and patients with cerebral hemorrhage who were hospitalized for less than 2 weeks) were subjected to rehabilitative treatment, including rehabilitative training of insulted limbs (physical treatment and/or exercise therapy), physical therapy, acupuncture and psychological consultation. Rehabilitative treatment was given 1-2 times a day and 45 minutes for each time. Physical therapy and acupuncture were given once a day and 20 minutes for each time. In contrast, patients in the control group were only asked in the doctor's round to do exercise themselves or with the assistance of others. Psychological states of all the patients were assessed with Symptom Self Rating Scale before treatment and discharge and daily life capability was also assessed with Barthel index (totally 10 items with scores of 0-15, full mark was 100, and patients who scored for ＜ 60were considered of self-incapability).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Scores for symptom checklist (SCL)and Barthel index of the two groups before treatment and when patients were discharged.Scores for each symptom factors in SCL were significantly improved in the rehabilitation group when patients were discharged from the hospital (P ＜ 0.05-0.01), and somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety and psychoticism, etc. were also obviously improved in the control group (P ＜ 0.05); moreover scores for somatization, obsessive-compulsive,depression, anxiety phobic anxiety and psychoticism in the rehabilitation group after treatment were significantly lower than those in the control group [(1.55±0.43), (1.80±0.35); (1.48±0.39), (1.68±0.55); (1.54±0.43),(1.83±0.37); (1.32±0.39), (1.56±0.36); (1.46±0.43), (1.66±0.52); (1.12±0.38),creased aftertreatment (P ＜ 0.05-0.01), but those of the rehabilitation group were significantly higher than those of the control group [(73.24±4.64),(52.44±2.86), P ＜ 0.05].CONCLUSION:Scores for symptomatic factors in SCL and Barthel indexes were improved after treatment, especially in patients who received rehabilitative treatment, suggesting that earlier integrative rehabilitative treatment may play active influence on the emotions and daily life capability of patients following acute stroke.