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Postsurgical screening for psychosocial disorders in neurooncological patients

  • Clinical Article - Brain Tumors
  • Published:
Acta Neurochirurgica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

The diagnosis of a brain tumor can cause severe psychosocial distress, which can have a variety of negative consequences on patients' physical and mental well-being. The detection of psychosocial distress in daily clinical routine is difficult and subsequent referral to mental health professionals is rare. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of psychological disorders of patients early postoperatively and to investigate both the Hornheide Screening Instrument (HSI) and Distress Thermometer (DT) as screening tools in neurooncological practice.

Methods

One hundred and thirty-four patients with brain tumors of different histology were postoperatively evaluated by the Distress Thermometer and Hornheide Screening Instrument. Additionally, correlation to gender, age, localization of the tumor, Karnofsky performance score and tumor entity were analyzed.

Results

After initial surgery 36 patients (26.9 %) showed pathologic results in the HSI and 50 patients (36.7 %) were severely distressed (DT Score ≥ 6). Women had the highest rate of psychological disorders, followed by patients suffering from gliomas and meningiomas. Further highlighting the results of both tests, over 80 % of those patients who scored pathologically in both tests were in need of professional psychiatric help due to depression.

Conclusion

Both the DT and HSI are suitable instruments for identifying patients in psychological distress after brain tumor surgery in neurooncological routine. Our results confirm that nearly one third of patients are unable to overcome the difficulties facing the diagnosis of a brain tumor in this early situation and should be supported by mental health professionals.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Friedhelm-Frees-Stiftung in Mainz for kindly supporting the bicentric psycho-oncological screening projects of the two institutions – Mainz and Stuttgart.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mayence, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mayence, Germany

    M. Renovanz, A. Gutenberg & A. Giese

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Klinikum Stuttgart, Katharinen hospital, Stuttgart, Germany

    M. Haug, M. Nadji-Ohl & N. Hopf

  3. Fachklinik Hornheide, Münster, Germany

    E. Strittmatter

  4. Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Mayence, Germany

    J. Mazur

Authors
  1. M. Renovanz
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  2. A. Gutenberg
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  3. M. Haug
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  4. E. Strittmatter
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  5. J. Mazur
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  6. M. Nadji-Ohl
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  7. A. Giese
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  8. N. Hopf
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Renovanz.

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Oral presentation

63rd annual meeting of the German society of neurosurgery (DGNC), June, 2012. Title: Diagnosis of a brain tumor represents psychological disorder of patients – an analysis of the first postoperative days with the Distress Thermometer and the Hornheide Screening Intrument (pres. no. SA 07.10)

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Renovanz, M., Gutenberg, A., Haug, M. et al. Postsurgical screening for psychosocial disorders in neurooncological patients. Acta Neurochir 155, 2255–2261 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-013-1884-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-013-1884-9

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