[Intracranial tumors in mental patients (author's transl)]

One hundred and fifty patients admitted consecutively to the same neurosurgical service in Paris were reviewed retrospectively. There is no definite difference between intracranial tumors in mental patients and those encountered in a normal population in terms of: frequency, anatomic localisation and histological distribution. All the patients had been referred previously to psychiatric hospitals for: confusional states, disturbed behaviour or pseudo-depression in 60% of the cases. Neurological localizing signs were present in 83% of the cases; EEG was abnormal in 96% of the patients recorded during their stay in psychiatric wards. Diagnosis of brain tumors in mental patients appears feasible if not always simple; it is based upon elementary neurological examination and routine investigations. In a near future, isotopic scan and CT scan should become a great help to reduce excessive diagnostic delays in order to improve the prognosis which remains poor.