Psychopathological manifestations of multiple meningiomas in the right hemisphere

Abstract

The paper gives the data available in the literature on meningiomas and their psychopathological manifestations that occupy a central position in the clinical picture in almost every 5 patients with these tumors. The authors provide a clinical and psychopathological analysis of a female patient with multiple meningiomas in the right hemisphere: a giant meningioma in the posterior third of the falx, a large meningioma in the temporal region, and three small meningiomas in the frontal and parietal regions. The disease started as headache; however, psychopathological symptoms remained missed by physicians, such as emotional lability; personality changes leading to family dissension; lower criticism; spatial orientation problems; hypomnesia; left-sided visual inattention,occurred in parallel. Surgical treatment was performed by stages: the two largest meningiomas were removed at an 11-day interval, which presented a means of observing psychopathological changes after each operation. It is concluded that greater attention should be given to the psychopathological manifestations of the disease, which is important to make a primary diagnosis and to define further treatment policy.

Keywords

• multiple meningiomas
• mental disorders
• symptoms of right hemisphere damage
• neuropsychiatric analysis