BJP Mental Health Guidelines from NICE
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kendell, R. E.
Right arrow Articles by Adams, W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kendell, R. E.
Right arrow Articles by Adams, W.

The British Journal of Psychiatry 158: 758-763 (1991)
© 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Unexplained fluctuations in the risk for schizophrenia by month and year of birth

RE Kendell and W Adams
University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

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.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Schizophr BullHome page
J. J McGrath
Variations in the Incidence of Schizophrenia: Data Versus Dogma
Schizophr Bull, January 1, 2006; 32(1): 195 - 197.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
Copyright © 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.