Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:38:37.943Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unexplained Fluctuations in the Risk for Schizophrenia by Month and Year of Birth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. E. Kendell  and
W. Adams
R. E. Kendell*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh, Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
W. Adams
Affiliation:
Medical Statistics Unit, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AF
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Variation in their year and month of birth was studied in the 13 661 schizophrenics born between 1914 and 1960 known to the Scottish Psychiatric Case Register. Year-to-year fluctuations in the number of schizophrenics per 10 000 live births were outside chance limits. So were month-to-month fluctuations between January 1932 and December 1960, and this was largely due to fluctuations in the numbers of schizophrenics born in February, March, April and May. Time-lagged correlations with mean monthly temperatures suggest that in these same four months the incidence of schizophrenia is influenced by temperature six months previously – the lower the temperature in the autumn the higher the incidence of schizophrenic births the following spring. If these findings can be confirmed in other data sets, they would suggest that some influence which varies consistently with season and temperature is contributing to the aetiology of schizophrenia and may exert its effects as early as the third or fourth month of foetal development.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 6 , June 1991 , pp. 758 - 763
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

Barr, C. E., Mednick, S. A. & Munk-Jorgensen, P. (1990) Exposure to influenza epidemics during gestation and adult schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 869–874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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
Buck, C. & Simpson, H. (1978) Season of birth among the sibs of schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 358–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, D. R. (1983) Some remarks on over dispersion. Biometrika, 79, 269–274.Google Scholar
Cox, D. R. & Hinkley, D. V. (1974) Theoretical Statistics. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Gottesman, I. I. & Shields, J. (1982) Schizophrenia: The Epigenetic Puzzle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hanshaw, J. B. & Dudgeon, J. A. (1978) Viral Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.Google ScholarPubMed
Hare, E. & Moran, P. (1981) A relation between seasonal temperature and the birth rate of schizophrenic patients. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 63, 396–405.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. E. & Kemp, I. W. (1989) Maternal influenza in the etiology of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 878–882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, M. S. (1989) Age incidence and schizophrenia: Part I. The season of birth controversy. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 59–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattock, C., Marmot, M. & Stein, G. (1988) Could Parkinson's disease follow intra-uterine influenza? A speculative hypothesis. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 51, 753–756.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNeil, T., Dalen, P., Dzierzykray-Rogalska, M., et al (1975) Birth rates of schizophrenics following relatively warm versus relatively cool summers. Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 221, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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
Registrar General for Scotland (1931–1961) Annual Reports for 1931–1961. Edinburgh: HMSO.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F., Rawlings, R. & Waldman, I. N. (1988) Schizophrenic births and viral diseases in two states. Schizophrenia Research, 1, 73–77.Google Scholar
Watson, C. G., Kucala, T., Tilleskjor, C., et al (1984) Schizophrenic birth seasonality in relation to the incidence of infectious disease and temperature extremes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 85–90.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.