Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:15:14.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Shifting Seasonality of Schizophrenic Births

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. Fuller Torrey  and
Barbara Boyle Torrey
E. Fuller Torrey
Affiliation:
Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Barbara Boyle Torrey
Affiliation:
Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

In view of recent findings in Japan, and in England and Wales, data on schizophrenic births in the United States were reexamined to see if seasonal shifts had occurred. In Missouri a progressive shift from February to April and May was noted between 1921 and 1930 and between 1941 and 1950. In five New England states there was no shift over the same period. Data were then obtained to compare the Missouri shift with two hypotheses previously put forward to explain schizophrenic birth seasonality: (1) that it is related to the seasonality of general births, and (2) that it is related to seasonal temperature variation. Neither hypothesis was supported by the data.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 134 , Issue 2 , February 1979 , pp. 183 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1979 

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

Cowgill, U. M. (1966) Season of birth in man. Contemporary situation with special reference to Europe and the Southern Hemisphere. Ecology, 47, 614–23.Google Scholar
Dalén, P. (1968) Month of birth and schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplementum, 203, 55–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalén, P. (1974) Season of Birth in Schizophrenia and other Mental Disorders. Göteborg: University of Göteborg.Google Scholar
Diebold, K. (1975) The relationship between month of birth and psychic disorder. Fortschritte der Neurologie, Psychiatrie und ihrer Grenzgebiete, 43, 71–81.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1975) Manic-depressive psychosis and season of birth. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 52, 69–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, E. H. (1978) Variations in the seasonal distribution of births of psychotic patients in England and Wales. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 155–8.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. & Price, J. S. (1968) Mental disorder and season of birth: comparison of psychoses with neuroses. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 533–40.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H., Price, J. S. & Slater, E. (1974) Mental disorder and season of birth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 81–6.Google Scholar
Jongbloet, P. H. (1971) Month of birth and gametopathy. Clinica Genetica, 2, 315–30.Google Scholar
Ödegård, Ö. (1974) Season of birth in the general population and in patients with mental disorder in Norway. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 397–405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ödegård, Ö. (1977) Season of birth in the population of Norway, with particular reference to the September birth maximum. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 339–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. & Balza, B. (1977) Season of birth and schizophrenia—an equatorial study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 56, 143–6.Google Scholar
Parker, G. & Neilson, M. (1976) Mental disorder and season of birth—a southern hemisphere study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 355–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pasamanick, B. & Knobloch, H. (1961) Epidemiologic studies on the complications of pregnancy and the birth process. In Caplan, G. (ed.) Prevention of Mental Disorders in Children. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Petersen, W. F. (1934) The Patient and the Weather: Mental and Nervous Diseases. Ann Arbor: Edwards.Google Scholar
Shimura, M., Nakamura, I. & Miura, T. (1977) Season of birth of schizophrenics in Tokyo, Japan. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 55, 225–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torrey, E. F. (1978) Schizophrenic births. Letter to the Editor. Lancet, 1, 882.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F., Torrey, B. B. & Peterson, M. R. (1977) Seasonality of schizophrenic births in the U.S. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 1065–70.Google Scholar
Videbech, T. H., Weeke, A. & Dupont, A. (1974) Endogenous psychoses and season of birth. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 50, 202–18.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.