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Acromegaly is a rare disease which appears in adulthood and is characterised by an excess of growth hormone (GH) caused by a benign tumour in the pituitary gland. Patients with acromegaly present physical signs and symptoms such as enlarged hands, feet, lips and nose, hypertension, headaches, diabetes mellitus and carpal tunnel syndrome. Commonly, they also present emotional alterations such as dysthymia (characterised by a melancholic, sad mood), anxiety, low self-esteem or emotional distress. This physical and emotional malaise directly affects the quality of life of these patients.

In recent years, the presence of cognitive problems were described in this type of patient, which persist even after GH levels are reduced.  Patients specifically mention difficulties in mental agility, concentration, memory and learning capacity.

Given the close relation between cognitive functions and emotions, the hypothesis of this study states that emotional alterations in patients with acromegaly could be related to cognitive difficulties, especially those related to decision-making and memory. With the aim of testing out the hypothesis, scientists used neuropsychological tests to assess memory, decision-making strategies, anxiety and depressive symptoms in a group of patients with acromegaly and in a control group of healthy individuals of the same age, gender and education level.

The results revealed that patients with acromegaly, when compared to the healthy control group, scored lower in memory, used worse strategies when making decisions and scored higher in anxiety and depressive symptoms. In addition, scientists observed that in the patients' group there was an inverse relation between emotional alterations and cognitive functions: patients with more anxiety and symptoms also showed more difficulties with memory, learning and decision-making. This relation was not seen in the healthy control group.

Scientists reached the conclusion that the study demonstrated that emotional alterations influence memory and decision-making strategies. Therefore, they now consider it essential to conduct further research into whether psychotherapeutic treatments to improve anxiety and depression symptoms in acromegaly patients also serve to improve problems or difficulties with cognitive functions.