A brain tumor diagnosis can be devastating. Not only does it put one’s life at risk, but the treatment required to remove a brain tumor can also have significant effects on a person’s personality and behavior. Brain tumors, especially those located in certain critical areas of the brain, can cause damage that leads to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes. While removing a brain tumor is necessary to save a patient’s life, the after-effects on personality need to be considered.
What are the effects of a brain tumor on personality?
Brain tumors can affect personality and behavior in different ways depending on the tumor’s size, location, and rate of growth. Some common effects of brain tumors include:
Cognitive changes
Brain tumors can impair cognitive functions like memory, concentration, judgement, and problem-solving. Tumors in language centers of the brain can make speech difficult.
Personality changes
Patients with brain tumors may experience drastic personality changes like depression, irritability, aggressive behavior, impulsivity, and lack of restraint. This is especially common with tumors located in the frontal lobe of the brain which controls personality expression.
Mood disturbances
Brain tumors can lead to severe mood swings, flat affect, laughing or crying spells, mania, social withdrawal, lack of interest, and psychosis in extreme cases. Tumors affecting the limbic system are often associated with mood disturbances.
Behavioral changes
Disinhibited behaviors like inappropriate sexual acts, risky behaviors, aggression, and lack of social tact are linked to certain brain tumors affecting the frontal and temporal lobes. Parietal and occipital lobe tumors also cause visuospatial defects impacting behavior.
So in essence, brain tumors can impair cognitive capacity, alter personality, impact mood, and lead to behavioral disturbances – all of which can fundamentally change who the person is.
How does removing a brain tumor affect personality?
Removing a brain tumor has several effects on an individual’s personality:
Improvement in some symptoms
Eliminating the brain tumor eliminates its effects like intracranial pressure, compression of nearby tissues, seizures, hormone secretion, etc. This leads to immediate improvement in some cognitive, behavioral and mood symptoms. Patients have reported feeling more like themselves right after tumor removal.
Residual deficits
While removing a brain tumor can improve its symptoms, some residual personality and behavioral deficits may remain if the tumor has been present for long. This is because the tumor may have permanently damaged surrounding brain tissue. Residual symptoms depend on the tumor location and duration.
New deficits
The brain surgery to remove a tumor can itself cause collateral damage to healthy brain tissue and result in new personality deficits. For example, surgery for a frontal lobe tumor can cause decreased motivation, impaired judgement, lack of empathy, etc.
Recovery varies
Some patients may recover completely and return to their normal selves in time. But for others, residual personality changes remain long-term. Recovery depends on the severity of initial symptoms, residual damage post-surgery, rehabilitation efforts, and neural plasticity.
Psychological adjustment
Even after successful tumor removal, coming to terms with the diagnosis and aftermath can be psychologically tough for patients. Counseling helps patients adjust their sense of self and identity based on post-surgery deficits.
So removing a brain tumor can definitely alter personality temporarily or permanently based on many individual factors. Close monitoring by a neuropsychologist is required.
How do different brain tumor locations affect personality changes?
Different brain tumor locations result in different kinds of personality and behavioral changes:
Frontal lobe tumors
Frontal lobe tumors impair judgement, impulse control, empathy, mood, abstraction, and cause obsessive compulsions.
Temporal lobe tumors
Temporal lobe tumors affect memory, emotional control, fear regulation resulting in aggression, flat affect, and mood instability.
Parietal lobe tumors
Parietal lobe tumors disrupt attention, language, spatial orientation, self-awareness and cause neglect syndrome.
Occipital lobe tumors
Occipital lobe tumors impair vision causing hallucinations, spatial disorientation and visuospatial deficits.
Brain stem tumors
Brain stem tumors affect alertness, arousal, orientation, consciousness causing severe cognitive dysfunction.
Pituitary gland tumors
Pituitary tumors disrupt hormone regulation causing emotions to go haywire along with energy levels, metabolism, growth, and sleep cycles.
Cerebellar tumors
Cerebellar tumors impair balance, coordination, speech, posture, gait and control of extremities.
So tumors in cognitive, behavioral, sensory, and hormone control centers of the brain are most likely to alter an individual’s personality.
What brain functions correlate with personality traits?
There is considerable overlap between certain brain functions and personality traits:
| Brain Function | Associated Personality Traits |
|---|---|
| Decision making | Judgement, risk-taking, planning |
| Impulse control | Patience, prudence, aggression |
| Motivation | Drive, initiative, tenacity, purpose |
| Emotion regulation | Mood, emotional stability, calmness |
| Empathy | Compassion, kindness, gentleness |
| Memory | Conscientiousness, pragmatism |
| Social cognition | Extraversion, leadership, dominance |
| Language | Verbal fluency, wit, creativity |
A brain tumor or surgery disrupting any of these functions has the potential to alter associated personality traits.
How to manage personality changes after brain tumor surgery?
Here are some ways patients can manage personality changes after brain tumor surgery:
Psychotherapy and counseling
This helps patients learn to cope with changes to their self-concept, identity, and relationships after surgery. Talk therapy aids emotional adjustment.
Neuropsychological testing
Formal testing mapped to brain function helps quantify personality deficits objectively so that progress can be monitored.
Medication
Drugs may be prescribed to manage extreme personality changes like depression, mania, anxiety, disinhibition, etc.
Occupational therapy
Rehabilitative approaches help adapt to deficits that impact activities of daily living.
Physical therapy
Improving motor coordination and strength aids overall functioning.
Speech therapy
Restoring language capacity and verbal fluency may improve social confidence.
Home healthcare
Assistance at home during early recovery secures psychosocial well-being.
Support groups
Connecting with others having similar experiences provides validation.
Lifestyle changes
Adopting healthy habits benefits physical and mental recovery.
With a customized, multidisciplinary approach focused on managing personality changes, most brain tumor patients can adapt successfully over time.
Conclusion
A brain tumor diagnosis is always challenging, not just due to health risks but also the impact on a person’s very identity. Removing a brain tumor can undoubtedly lead to changes in personality – subtly or significantly. With treatment focused on both tumor removal as well as postoperative neurocognitive rehabilitation, most patients can regain satisfying quality of life. Personality transformation post-brain tumor surgery requires external support as well as inner resilience. But human beings have an astounding capacity to adapt to change if recovery is guided well.