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Confinement of Winter Birth Excess in Schizophrenia to the Urban-born and its Gender Specificity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Eadbhard O'Callaghan ,
David Cotter ,
Karen Colgan ,
Conall Larkin ,
Dermot Walsh  and
John L. Waddington
Eadbhard O'Callaghan*
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland
David Cotter
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland
Karen Colgan
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland
Conall Larkin
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland
Dermot Walsh
Affiliation:
St Lomans Hospital, Palmerstown, Dublin
John L. Waddington
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin
*
Dr E. O'Callaghan, Cluain Mhuire Family Centre, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland
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Abstract

Background

The season of birth phenomenon in schizophrenia was reexamined in relation to place of birth, in order to test the hypothesis that a seasonal factor might operate preferentially among those who were urban-born.

Method

The seasonal distribution of births was examined among 3253 patients in two case registers having an ICD–9 diagnosis of schizophrenia and compared with the distribution of births among the normal population born in those catchment areas over the same period; those subjects born in population centres greater than 50 000 were defined as urban-born.

Results

Patients who were urban-born showed an excess of winter births relative to controls that was absent among their rural-born counterparts. On comparing patient groups, those who were urban-born were more likely to be born in the winter, while those who were rural-born were more likely to be born in the spring; this urban–rural distinction was confined essentially to female patients.

Conclusions

These findings might be accommodated most readily in terms of a spatially as well as seasonally varying environmental factor that is associated with urbanicity and to which female offspring are more vulnerable.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 166 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 51 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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