Pontine mass presenting as anxiety, obsessions, and severe eating problems: a case report.

Psychiatric symptoms are rarely reported as presenting symptoms in brainstem gliomas in children, with anxiety being the most common one. An 8-year-old girl patient had loss of appetite, weight loss, and difficulty in swallowing severe enough to warrant parenteral nutrition and hospitalization. Psychiatric examination revealed ego-dystonic obsessions related with choking and compulsory religious rituals. Symptoms partially responded to psychotropic treatment. However, because of unremitting hiccups and left-sided weakness, brain imaging was conducted, and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a diffuse pontine mass. The possible explanations for the relationship between the pontine mass and the psychiatric symptoms are discussed.