The study showed that testing for post-traumatic stress disorder could be the key to the improved recovery of stroke and brain haemorrhage victims with medics now better placed to know exactly what they are suffering from.

The study found that brain haemorrhage victims suffer traumatic depression and anxiety – known as post traumatic stress disorder – commonly found in soldiers returning from war zones and vistims of sickening sex attacks.

The Peterlee-based Clarke Lister Brain Haemorrhage Foundation funded the study which was carried out by Durham University's Wolfston Institute.

Carole Lister, who founded the charity 12 years ago after her son Clarke, 10, died from a brain haemorrhage in 1996, has welcomed the results.

She told the Mail: "The outcome is significant and it's certainly going to help a lot of people.

"A lot of doctors and clinicians are now going to be able to prescribe accordingly now they know what symptoms to expect from someone who has suffered a brain haemorrhage.

"We are delighted we have been able to fund the research. It is the first of many programmes that we are about to embark on. It is a massive step forward in the neurological world and will be of benefit to everyone in the country, which it was what we always vowed to achieve.

"Without all the support of donors and sponsors it wouldn't have been possible.

"We owe many thanks to hundreds of donors without whose support it wouldn't have been possible."

The study of 100 brain haemorrhage survivors showed more than one third tested positive for "war zone" disorder, displaying symptoms such as painful memories and flashbacks of their haemorrhage, extreme anxiety and chronic fatigue.

The number of participants diagnosed with the disorder is four times higher than the rate normally found in the general population and the same as that found in soldiers returning from war zones and among victims of sexual assault, say the scientists.

Researchers found that post-traumatic stress disorder impacted greatly on the stroke patients' recovery and their ability to resume a normal life, even if the actual brain damage caused by their type of stroke, called subarachnoid haemorrhage, was minor.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage, a sudden leak of blood over the surface of the brain, affects about 8,000 people in the UK each year.

Experts say the findings could have wider implications for the treatment of neurological diseases in general and focus on psychological problems, which may well be a vital element in the patients' poor recovery.