Psychiatric Disorder With Intracranial Tumors of Limbic System

Abstract

IT has long been known that intracranial tumors have a high incidence of mental symptoms, consisting of personality changes, emotional disturbances, and intellectual defects. The largest series of cases was reported by Keschner et al1-3who found an incidence of mental symptoms in 94% of cases with tumors of the temporal lobes, in 90% of cases with neoplasms of the frontal lobes, and in 47% of cases with infratentorial tumors. It was the opinion of these authors that the mental symptoms were of no localizing value but depended on such factors as extent and rapidity of the growth, increased intracranial pressure, presence of aphasia, and previous personality structure. This opinion was shared by other investigators. However, with increasing knowledge in recent years of the functional significance in emotional expression of certain areas of the brain, this attitude had undergone a change. Thus, following on the experimental production by