Benign brain tumours and psychiatric morbidity: a 5-years retrospective data analysis

To examine the psychiatric comorbidity in benign brain tumours.

A retrospective (5 years) data analysis at our 500 bed teaching hospital. The diagnoses of benign brain tumours were based on the record of final diagnoses in the case records confirmed by either CT or MRI scans. Case records of patients with clearly documented history of psychiatric symptoms of several weeks to several months duration were identified only if such symptoms had antedated a diagnosis of the brain tumour. Using a specially designed proforma, two psychiatrists rated the symptoms together. We also collected data on age, gender and CT/MRI findings. Consensus was reached on all cases in regard to the psychiatric phenomenology. The symptoms were divided according to their presentation into purely neurological or psychiatric symptoms.

A total of 79 patients were identified as having a primary diagnosis of benign brain tumour. There were 56 female patients and 23 male patients. Seventy-two of these had meningiomas. Fifteen (21%) of 72 meningioma cases, eight men and seven women, presented with psychiatric symptoms in the absence of neurological symptoms. Affective disorders were a common presentation. There was no correlation between brain laterality and the psychiatric comorbidity.

Psychiatric symptoms may be the only initial manifestations of meningiomas of the brain in a significant number of cases occurring in the fifth decade of life. Such patients must be investigated by brain imaging studies even if there are no neurological signs or symptoms.