engleski

PERSONALITY CHANGES IN CEREBRAL ANEURYSM PATIENTS

Introduction: Personality changes are often in brain-damaged patients. Some of them are of organic origin, but some develop as the reaction to diminished mental functioning.The aims of this study were: 1. to determine if there are any personality changes in cerebral aneurysm patients and to establish the possible differences according to some demographic nad neurological factors 2. to verify the influence of some personality traits on cognitive functions in cerebral aneurysm patients. Material and methods: One hunderd and fifty patients after the operation of cerebral aneurysm, in time period up to one year postoperatively, undergone neuropsychological assessment, which included cognitive tests and personality evaluation. Results : 32% of patients showed some changes (20% mild, 10% moderate and 2% severe) as a part of frontal lobe syndrome. The most of the patients showed moderate reactive personality changes (increased anxiety and depression, somatisation, desorganisation). Statistically significant differences in personality changes were found according gender, education, time-interval between the operation and neuropsychological assessment, aneurysm site and lateralisation and the type of operation. As a result of factor and regression analysis some personality traits proved significant influence on the results obtained in almost every cognitive function assessed in this study. Conclusions: The results of this study confirmed the importance of personality assessment because of personality changes&cent ; ; great influence on cognitive functions, as well as the necessity of psychological follow up, because of the increasing number of symptoms during time after the operation in cerebral aneurysm patients.

cerebral aneurysm; personality changes; neuropsychological assessment

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