Brain tumours simulating psychiatric disease.

Brain tumours may present with symptoms indistinguishable from psychiatric disease. The impression of most psychiatrists is that individuals suffering from brain tumour rarely appear among their patients. A priori reasoning based on evidence from neurological, neurosurgical and pathological sources suggests the contrary.The present study is a frequency analysis of cases of previously undiagnosed brain tumours admitted to either an open psychoneurotic ward or a mental hospital over a period of 15 years. The results support the impression held by psychiatrists that brain tumours are uncommon among psychiatric patients.