Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:49:59.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Season of Birth in Schizophrenia

Evidence for Confinement of an Excess of Winter Births to Patients Without a Family History of Mental Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Eadbhard O'Callaghan ,
Tessa Gibson ,
Hubert A. Colohan ,
David Walshe ,
Peter Buckley ,
Conall Larkin  and
John L. Waddington
Eadbhard O'Callaghan*
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services and Genetics Section, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Tessa Gibson
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Dublin
Hubert A. Colohan
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, University of Southampton
David Walshe
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Dublin
Peter Buckley
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Dublin
Conall Larkin
Affiliation:
St John of God Psychiatric Services, Dublin
John L. Waddington
Affiliation:
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin
*
∗Genetics Section, Institute of Psychiatry, de Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although it is well recognised that schizophrenic patients are more often born in winter, the significance of this finding remains obscure. Data relating to season of birth and family history were analysed for 561 patients with an ICD–9 diagnosis of schizophrenia. Patients with no family history of any psychiatric disorder group were significantly more likely to be born in winter than patients with a first-degree relative affected by schizophrenia. In comparison with normal population controls, only those without a family history exhibited a significant excess of winter births, suggesting an environmental factor of greater aetiological significance in these patients.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 6 , June 1991 , pp. 764 - 769
Copyright
Copyright © 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

Baron, M. & Gruen, R. (1988) Risk factors in schizophrenia: season of birth and family history. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 460–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boyd, J. H., Pulver, A. E. & Stewart, W. (1986) Season of birth: schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 173–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradbury, T. N. & Miller, G. A. (1985) Season of birth in schizophrenia: a review of evidence, methodology and etiology. Psychology Bulletin, 98, 569–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalen, P. (1975) Season of Birth: A Study of Schizophrenia and Other Mental Disorders. Amsterdam: North Holland/America Elsevier.Google Scholar
Degreef, G., Mukherjee, S., Bilder, R., et al (1988) Season of birth and CT scan findings in schizophrenic patients. Biological Psychiatry, 24, 461–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, J. H. (1961) The recognition and estimation of cyclic trends. Annals of Human Genetics, 25, 83–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haberman, S. J. (1973) The analysis of residuals in cross-classified tables. Biometrics, 29, 205–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, E. H., Price, J. S. & Slater, E. (1972) Schizophrenia and season of birth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 125–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huxley, J., Mayr, E., Osmond, H., et al (1964) Schizophrenia as a genetic morphism. Nature, 204, 220–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. S. (1988) The sporadic v. familial classification given aetiological heterogeneity: II. Power analyses. Psychological Medicine, 18, 991–999.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinney, D. K. & Jacobsen, B. (1978) Environmental factors in schizophrenia: new adoption study evidence. In The Nature of Schizophrenia (eds L. C. Wynne, R. L. Cromwell & S. Matthysse). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. S. (1989) Age incidence and schizophrenia: Part I. The season of birth controversy. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 59–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, S. W., Reveley, A. M., Reveley, M. A., et al (1987) The familial/sporadic distinction as a strategy in schizophrenia research. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 306–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lo, C. W. (1985) Season of birth of schizophrenics in Hong Kong. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 212–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Machon, R. A., Mednick, S. A. & Schulsinger, F. (1983) The interaction of seasonality, place of birth, genetic risk and subsequent schizophrenia in a high risk sample. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 383–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeil, T. F. (1987) Perinatal influences in the development of schizophrenia. In Biological Perspectives of Schizophrenia (eds H. Helmchen & F. A. Henn). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
McNeil, T. F. & Kali, L. (1978) Obstetric factors in the development of schizophrenia: complications in the births of preschizophrenics and in reproduction by schizophrenic parents. In The Nature of Schizophrenia (eds L. C. Wynne, R. L. Cromwell & S. Matthysse). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mednick, S. A., Machon, R. A., Huttunen, M. O., et al (1988) Adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 189–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, R. M., Lewis, S. W. & Reveley, A. M. (1985) Towards an aetiological classification of schizophrenia. Lancet, i, 1023–1026.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hare, A., Walsh, D. & Torrey, E. F. (1980) Seasonality of schizophrenic births in Ireland. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 74–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen, M. J., Jones, P., Lewis, S. W., et al (1989) The relationship between season of birth and biological variables in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 2, 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasamanick, B. & Knobloch, H. (1958) Seasonal variation in complications of pregnancy. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 12, 110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pasamanick, B. & Knobloch, H. (1961) Epidemiological studies on the complications of pregnancy and the birth process. In Prevention of Mental Disorders in Children (ed. G. Caplan). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Roger, J. H. (1977) A significance test for cyclic trends in incidence data. Biometrika, 64, 152–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacchetti, E., Vita, A., Battaglia, A., et al (1987) Season of birth and cerebral ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia. In Etiopathogenetic Hypotheses of Schizophrenia: The Impact of Epidemiological, Biochemical and Neuromorphological Studies (eds C. L. Cazzullo, G. Invernizzi, E. Sacchetti, et al). Lancaster: MTP Press.Google Scholar
Sacchetti, E., Vita, A., Giobbio, G. M., et al (1989) Risk factors in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 266–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shensky, T. & Shur, E. (1982) Season of birth of schizophrenics: cyclic trends and their analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 316–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shur, E. (1982) Season of birth in high and low genetic risk schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 410–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torrey, E. F. (1987) Hypotheses on the seasonality of schizophrenic births. In Etiopathogenetic Hypotheses of Schizophrenia: The Impact of Epidemiological, Biochemical and Neuromorphological Studies (eds C. L. Cazzullo, G. Invernizzi, E. Sacchetti, et al). Lancaster: MTP Press.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F., Rawlings, R. & Waldman, I. N. (1988) Schizophrenic births and viral diseases in two states. Schizophrenia Research, 1, 73–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, C. G., Kucala, T., Tilleskjor, C., et al (1984) Schizophrenic birth seasonality in relation to the incidence of infectious diseases and temperature extremes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 85–90.CrossRefGoogle 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
Zipursky, R. B. & Schulz, S. C. (1987) Seasonality of birth and CT findings in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 22, 1288–1292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.