Cognitive and Emotional Resilience Seven Years After Brain Tumor Resection

TL;DR

This case study shows that a brain tumor patient experienced significant cognitive recovery seven years after surgery, highlighting the brain's resilience and the importance of ongoing mental health care.

Contribution

The study provides a rare long-term case report on cognitive and emotional recovery after meningioma resection.

Findings

The patient showed significant cognitive improvement over seven years post-surgery.

Despite initial cognitive deficits, she eventually achieved normal cognition.

Depressive symptoms persisted, emphasizing the need for psychiatric support.

Abstract

Meningiomas are common and are associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional changes due to their growth and treatment methods. Longterm cognitive recovery following surgery is often underexplored. In this case report, we highlight resiliency and recovery following brain tumor resection and emphasize neuropsychology and psychiatry's role in long-term care. We present the case of a 64-year-old Black female Veteran followed with serial neuropsychological evaluations up to seven years after her temporal craniotomy and parasellar meningioma resection. Initial evaluations showed cognitive deficits and emotional instability, leading to a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, she continued to improve, and in the most recent evaluation, she was deemed to be of normal cognition, although depressive symptoms persisted. This case demonstrates significant cognitive recovery post-meningioma resection, underscoring the brain's resilience and the critical role of the neuropsychology and psychiatry services in long-term care and recovery.

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