OPPapers.com

Dr

Psychiatric manifestations of Brain Tumours

Brain tumours are found more frequently in patients who have psychiatric and behavioural symptomatology than those who do not.
In fact psychiatric patients are more likely to have brain tumours than are individuals from non psychiatric control groups.
Autopsy findings have shown that unsuspected and undiagnosed brain tumours are found in as much as 3 % of chronic psychiatric patients. This is in contrast to prevalence rates of cerebral tumours in general population is only 0.13%.
Studies have shown that psychiatric & neurocognitive manifestations are earliest signs in ~18% of cases of brain tumours.
There is often an assumption in neuropsychiatrists that certain specific association between brain tumours and psychiatric symptoms. It is now shown that though often there may be a pattern there is no consistency of the association or specificity of the psychiatric symptoms. Anatomical localisation as an important (but only one of the factors ) in understanding the nature and severity of psychiatric symptoms oc-occurring with brain tumours.
Brain tumours can be classified according to the tissue of origin or anatomical localisation of the mass. The tissue classification is more of interest to the neurosurgeons as it has implications for resection, aggressiveness of growth, response to chemotherapy/radiotherapy etc. Psychiatric manifestations can be better understood with anatomical localisation. As mentioned above the psychiatric symptoms displayed are by no means specific to any site.
Described below is psychiatric manifestations ( & neuro-cognitive deficits) according to the anatomic location.
The psychiatric & behavioural manifestations can be broadly divided into
• Psychiatric symptoms
• Cognitive symptoms
• Personality changes

Frontal lobe tumours
Frontal lobe tumours comprise 22% of all brain tumours. But upto 90% of the cases have psychiatric and behavioural symptoms. 1
Frontal lobe tumour...