Intracranial meningiomas: correlation of peritumoral edema and psychiatric disturbances.

Patients with proven intracranial meningioma were reexamined for psychiatric morbidity. Distribution according to type of meningioma was as follows: 72% convexity meningiomas and 28% base-of-skull meningiomas. No psychiatric disorders were diagnosed in the nonconvexity group in contrast to 44% in the convexity meningiomas. Among the convexity meningiomas, no difference between right- and left-hemispheric locations was found. Psychiatric comorbidity in the right-hemisphere group was found only in patients with frontal lobe meningiomas. Edema width was measured on all computed tomographic scan slices on which it appeared, and the average of all the slices was calculated. No correlation was found between neurological symptoms and edema severity. A statistically significant correlation was found between edema volume and the presence of coexisting psychiatric disorders, but not between the tumor's mass volume and the psychiatric symptoms.