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Failure to identify a male winter-born schizophrenia subgroup clinically

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

J Modestin ,
O Würmle  and
R Ammann
J Modestin
Affiliation:
Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich, Lenggstrasse 31, CH 8029Zürich 8
O Würmle
Affiliation:
Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Bern, Bolligenstr III, CH 3072 Bern, Switzerland
R Ammann
Affiliation:
Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Bern, Bolligenstr III, CH 3072 Bern, Switzerland
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Summary

The distribution of 282 Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and of 224 DSM-III-R schizophrenic patients, respectively, by month of their birth was studied. The winter-spring birth rate excess was confirmed with a maximum from January to March. Winterborn and summer-born schizophrenics were compared. No convincing differences were found with regard to a larger set of demographic, psychosocial and clinical variables in univariate comparisons, nor did we succeed in separating and identifying a special winter-born schizophrenia subgroup using the method of cluster analysis. Negative results were obtained in spite of the fact that many of the included variables reflected the course of the illness and the degree of chronicity. Either the set of the variables we used has not been ‘correct’ enough or the separation of a winter-born subgroup is not clinically feasible.

Keywords

schizophreniabirth distributionclinical subgroupscluster analysis
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , 1996 , pp. 34 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Elsevier, Paris

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