Preoperative psychological personal characteristics of glioma patients

Objective To analyze the preoperative personal characteristics of glioma patients and to explore the association of their personal characteristics with clinical factors. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 85 patients with gliomas (tumor group) who were admitted to Department of Neurosurgery of Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from February 2016 to December 2018. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was used for assessment before surgery. Meanwhile, 41 healthy volunteers who volunteered to undergo the MMPI assessment at Mental Health Center of Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University during the same period were enrolled as controls (healthy control group). The results of MMPI scores were compared between the 2 groups. The relationship between Karnofsky Performance scale(KPS) score, tumor grade, location and side of patients with glioma and MMPI score was further analyzed. Results There was no significant difference in age, gender, education level or income between the 2 groups (all P>0.05). Compared with normal control group, the scores of 9 scales of MMPI in tumor group, including Lie (56.0±11.5 vs. 50.0±10.0), Validity (53.0±10.6 vs. 41.7±8.8), Hypochondriasis (55.6±11.2 vs. 44.2±8.3), Depression (49.2±9.6 vs. 42.2±10.3), Masculinity-femininity(49.9±9.4 vs. 42.8±14.0), Psychasthenia (51.5±10.0 vs. 40.9±11.5), Schizophrenia (51.2±10.6 vs. 40.2±10.6), Hypomania(51.8±9.1 vs. 47.7±9.4), Social introversion(46.6±8.7 vs. 36.7±13.0), were significant increased (all P 80 group and KPS≤80 group (P 0.05). Conclusions Patients with gliomas usually have some abnormal psychological personality, including evasion, over self-worry, emotional depression, nervousness, anxiety and so on. The KPS scores, tumor grade and location seem to have certain effects on their psychological personal characteristics respectively. Key words: Glioma; Preoperative period; Psychology; Personality assessment; Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory