Neuropsychiatric presentations and outcomes in children and adolescents with primary brain tumours: Systematic review.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature relating to the neuropsychiatric symptoms at presentation and outcome of childhood brain tumours.

Methods: Seven online databases pertaining to the neuropsychiatric presentation and outcomes of childhood CNS tumours were searched and PRISMA guidelines were followed. Temporal limits were not applied to the searches.

Results: There were 1879 relevant search results in total. After discovering the large body of both primary and secondary research in the field of cognitive and neuropsychological outcomes of brain tumours in children, these studies were excluded. Quality-of-life studies were excluded for the same reason. Thirty-one papers were chosen for discussion in this review.

Conclusion: This timely systematic review concluded that neuropsychiatric presentations are common in children with CNS tumours-with the presence of behavioural and psychological symptoms in up to 57% of cases, their frequency varies according to age of onset and is strongly associated with time since diagnosis. The findings highlight the necessity for routine psychological and psychiatric screenings of children with suspected brain tumours and at follow-up and a number of clinical recommendations to this effect are listed.