Psychiatric Manifestations Associated with Intracranial Tumors

Intracranial tumours may present with a spectrum of psychiatric symptoms that range from mood disturbances and personality changes to frank psychosis or cognitive decline. These manifestations often precede or accompany focal neurological deficits, complicating both diagnosis and management. Mood dysfunction, including depressive and hypomanic episodes, can arise when a lesion disrupts limbic circuits or white matter pathways. Personality alterations and disinhibition are frequently associated with frontal lobe or cerebellar involvement, reflecting the role of these structures in executive control and affect regulation. Temporal lobe masses may provoke hallucinations and psychotic states resembling primary psychiatric disorders. Delay in recognising an underlying neoplasm is common, since psychiatric signs alone may not prompt early neuroimaging. A growing body of research seeks to characterise the anatomical correlates of specific symptoms, refine diagnostic algorithms and inform surgical and medical strategies that address both tumour and behavioural sequelae.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have begun to map mood and affective disturbances onto precise tumour locations and white matter disconnection patterns. A large cohort investigation of patients with diffuse glioma demonstrated that severe depressive symptoms were significantly associated with lesions in the right corticospinal tract, fornix and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, whereas an absence of depressive features correlated with involvement of the uncinate fasciculus and temporal cingulum. Bayesian modelling further revealed that mood phenotypes in glioma patients can be predicted by lesion distribution within bilateral limbic-related tracts. These insights enhance our understanding of how infiltrative brain tumours modulate neural networks governing emotion and offer a framework for pre-surgical risk assessment and targeted rehabilitation.

Psychiatric Manifestations Associated with Intracranial Tumors publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in psychiatric manifestations associated with intracranial tumors across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Diffuse glioma: An infiltrative primary brain tumour arising from glial cells, often involving extensive white matter tracts.

Meningioma: A typically benign neoplasm originating from the meninges, frequently located in the frontal or parietal regions.

White matter tract: Bundles of myelinated nerve fibres that connect distinct brain regions and mediate signal transmission.

Psychosis: A mental state characterised by impaired reality testing, including hallucinations and delusional beliefs.

Neuroimaging: Diagnostic techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography used to visualise intracranial structures.

References

1. Tumor location is associated with mood dysfunction in patients with diffuse glioma. Nature Mental Health (2024).
2. Presenting Psychiatric and Neurological Symptoms and Signs of Brain Tumors before Diagnosis: A Systematic Review. Brain Sciences (2021).
3. Psychiatric Manifestations as the Primary Presentation of Frontal Meningioma. Ochsner Journal (2023).
4. Schizophrenia-Like Psychosis Presented in a Patient With a Temporal Lobe Tumor: A Case Report. Cureus (2022).