Objective: To expound the characteristics of psychological defense mechanism and the skills of psychotherapy intervention, which were used in acute stroke patients, to increase the application and research on psychological intervention in stroke patients. Data sources: Using the key terms "stroke patients, psychological defense psychotherapy", we searched Medicine for the articles related to psychological intervention in stroke between January 1995 and August 2004 in English. Meanwhile, using the key terms "acute phase, stroke patients, psychological defense and psychological intervention", we searched Chinese database CNKI between January 1995 and August 2004. At the same time, we searched recently correlative journals and books by hand. Study selection: All articles were selected firstly, those were relevant to prevalence survey of stroke patients in acute period(in three-month onset) and randomized controlled clinical trials were collected. The articles that were not obviously correlative and overview articles were excluded. Data extraction: A total of 3 Chinese and 4 English articles were collected, which were relevant to psychological defense mechanism and psychotherapy intervention in patients with stroke. Data synthesis: Totally 7 articles evaluated the psychological defense in stroke patients and investigated and communicated the characteristics of psychological defense and the skills of psychotherapy intervention. From the whole, we found that psychological defense was effective for stroke patients. The author summarized all data on psychological defense and intervention strategy by combining the theory of psychological defense. Conclusion: The accidence rate of stroke is high. Psychosomatic stress led by stroke and stroke recoveries have intimate relation. If learning and acting psychological stress intervention after stroke timely, it will be satisfactorily preventive function to reduce the occurrence of emotion disorders and inter-current diseases after stroke. According to the clinical experience, the intervention to psychological defense mechanism in stroke patients has very important practical importance and foundation. The combination of psychological defense mechanism theory and skills of intervention can do psychological debugging to patients' subconsciousness, for reducing, preventing emotion disorders after stroke and improving the survival quality.