Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:55:34.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender-Specific Changes Since 1900 in the Season-of-Birth Effect in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John M. Eagles ,
David Hunter  and
John R. Geddes
John M. Eagles*
Affiliation:
Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen AB9 2ZH
David Hunter
Affiliation:
Aberdeen Psychiatric Case Register, Royal Cornhill Hospital
John R. Geddes
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
*
Dr Eagles, Royal Cornhill Hospital, Cornhill Road, Aberdeen AB9 2ZH. Fax: 01224-404484
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

It was hypothesised that the size of the season-of-birth effect may have decreased in tandem with the apparent decline in the incidence of schizophrenia.

Method

Through the Aberdeen Psychiatric Case Register, subjects were identified who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and had been born between 1900 and 1969. The ratio of winter/spring to summer/autumn births was compared across the seven decades for both sexes together, for men, and for women.

Results

For the 1935 men, but not for the 1620 women, there was a highly significant increase (P = 0.0009) in season-of-birth effect.

Conclusion

Non-seasonal factors have contributed to a declining incidence of schizophrenia in both sexes. ‘Seasonal’ factors to which female foetuses are more susceptible than male foetuses (such as infection or malnutrition) have also decreased in frequency, severity, or both, but this has not happened with factors affecting males, leading to an increase of their season-of-birth effect.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 167 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 469 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bradbury, T. N. & Miller, G. A. (1985) Season of birth in schizophrenia: a review of evidence, methodology and etiology. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 569–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eagles, J. M. (1992) Are polioviruses a cause of schizophrenia? British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 598–600.Google Scholar
Eagles, J. M., Hunter, D. & McCance, C. (1988) Decline in the diagnosis of schizophrenia among first contacts with psychiatric services in North-East Scotland, 1969–1984. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 793–798.Google Scholar
Geddes, J. R., Black, R. J., Whalley, L. J., et al (1993) Persistence of the decline in the diagnosis of schizophrenia among first admissions to Scottish hospitals from 1969 to 1988. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 620–626.Google Scholar
Goodman, R. (1988) Are complications of pregnancy and birth causes of schizophrenia? Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 30, 391–394.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1986) Aspects of the epidemiology of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 554–561.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. & Price, J. S. (1969) Mental disorder and season of birth: comparison of psychoses with neuroses. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 533–540.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. (1992) Sex and schizophrenia: vive la différence . British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 445–450.Google Scholar
Muller, H. G. & Kleider, W. (1990) A hypothesis on the abnormal seasonality of schizophrenic births. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, 239, 331–334.Google Scholar
Murray, R. M., Gupta, S. & Der, G. (1990) Trends in schizophrenia [correspondence]. Lancet, 335, 1214.Google Scholar
O'Callaghan, E., Gibson, T., Colohan, H. A., et al (1992) Risk of schizophrenia in adults born after obstetric complications and their association with early onset of illness: British Medical Journal, 305, 1256–1259.Google Scholar
Odegaard, O. (1974) Season of birth in the general population and in patients with mental disorder in Norway. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 397–405.Google Scholar
Susser, E. S. & Lin, S. P. (1992) Schizophrenia after prenatal exposure to the Dutch hunger winter of 1944–45. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 983–988.Google Scholar
Takei, N., Sham, P., O'Callaghan, E., et al (1994) Prenatal exposure to influenza and the development of schizophrenia: is the effect confined to females? American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 117–119.Google Scholar
Videbech, T., Weeke, A. & Dupont, A. (1974) Endogenous psychoses and season of birth. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 50, 202–218.Google Scholar
Waddington, J. L. & Youssef, H. A. (1994) Evidence for a gender specific decline in the rate of schizophrenia in rural Ireland over a 50-year period. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 171–176.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1957) Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, 7th revision (ICD–7). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1967) Manual of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, 8th revision (ICD–8). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1978) Mental Disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD–9). Geneva. WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.