Personality traits, patient-centered health status and prognosis of brain tumor patients

Personality traits can be related to prognosis of cancer patients. The study aimed to evaluate the association of big-five personality dimensions with emotional and cognitive health status, and prognosis of brain tumor patients. A total of 178 patients admitted for brain tumor surgery were evaluated for personality traits (Tem item Personality Inventory), depressive/anxiety symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale or HADS) and cognitive functioning (Mini Mental State Examination or MMSE) on admission. One-hundred and forty-three patients were re-evaluated (HADS and MMSE scales) at hospital discharge. Follow-up continued until November, 2015. Thirty-five patients were diagnosed with high-grade glioma, 15 with low-grade glioma and 128 with benign brain tumors (meningioma, pituitary adenoma and vestibular schwannoma). In multivariate regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, past brain tumor treatment, psychiatric histories and medication use, and education, greater TIPI-Extroversion score was associated with greater admission MMSE score (beta = 0.159); TIPI-Emotional stability score, with lower HADS-Depression and HADS-Anxiety scores on admission (beta = - 0.407 and beta = - 0.404, respectively) and at discharge (beta = - 0.404 and beta = - 0.319, respectively); and greater TIPI-Openness score, with lower admission HADS-D score (beta = - 0.255, p = 0.001). In benign brain tumor patients, greater TIPI-Openness score was associated with reduced mortality risk [HR = 0.554 95% CI (0.376-0.814) p = 0.003)] independently from age, gender and histological diagnosis. Personality traits were not associated with survival of high-grade and low-grade glioma patients. Emotional stability and openness are associated with lower depressive/anxiety symptom severity, and extroversion with better cognitive functioning independently from demographic and clinical risk factors. Openness predicts lower mortality risk of low-grade/benign brain tumor patients.