Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:36:32.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mental Disorder and Season of Birth: Comparison of Psychoses with Neurosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. H. Hare  and
J. S. Price
E. H. Hare
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal and the Maudsley Hospitals, London, S.E.5
J. S. Price
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Psychiatric Genetics Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London, S.E.5
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Barry and Barry (1961, 1964) have reviewed the evidence for an association between season of birth and the major psychoses. Their figures show that, with a single exception, every study has found an excess (though not always a significant excess) of schizophrenic and manic-depressive patients born between January and April, and a deficit born between May and August, compared with the control populations. The single exception was their own study (1964) on schizophrenic patients in private mental hospitals, a finding which led them to conclude either that the private class of patient is protected from some adverse seasonal influence or that schizophrenic patients come chiefly from a subgroup of the population which has a comparatively high birth rate during the first four months of the year. Norris and Chowning (1962) drew attention to the fact that the seasonal distribution of births in a general population may vary appreciably from year to year in a particular country and from place to place within that country in any one year, and suggested that such variations make difficult any comparison between births of patients and of a large general population taken over a number of years, the procedure which had hitherto been adopted.

Type
Environmental Effects
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 115 , Issue 522 , May 1969 , pp. 533 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

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

Barry, H., and Barry, H. (1961). “Season of birth: an epidemiological study in psychiatry.” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 5, 292–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, H., and Barry, H. (1964). “Season of birth in schizophrenics: its relation to social class.” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 11, 385–391.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. (1964). “Season of birth in Puerto Ricans.” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 52, 1149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, H. A., and Newell, D.J. (1965). “The identification of annual peaks for a disease.” Biometrics, 21, 645–650.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunham, H. W. (1964). “Social class and schizophrenia.” Amer. J. Orthopsychiat., 34, 634–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, J. H. (1961). “The recognition and estimation of cyclic trends.” Ann, human Genet., 25, 83–87.Google Scholar
Goldberg, E. M., and Morrison, S. L. (1963). “Schizophrenia and social class.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 109, 785–802.Google Scholar
Huxley, J., Mayr, E., Osmond, H., and Hoffer, A. (1964). “Schizophrenia as a genetic morphism.” Nature, 204, 220–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Japan Medical Gazette, “Vital Statistics 1966, Japan.” 1967, June 20th, p. 3.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J. (1958). “Fertility and mental illness.” Eugen. Rev., 50, 91–106.Google Scholar
Low, I. (1966). “Blackout babies and breeding seasons.” New Scientist, 1966, Aug. 18th, pp. 378–379.Google Scholar
Moran, P. A. P. (1968). “Theoretical considerations on schizophrenia genetics.” In Genetic Factors in Schizophrenia (ed. Kaplan, A. R.). Thomas, Springfield.Google Scholar
Nolting, W. J. J. de S. (1954). “Vitamin G and the schizophrenic syndrome.” Fol. psychiat. neurol. neurosurg. Neerl., 57, 347–355.Google Scholar
Norris, A. S., and Chowning, J. R. (1962). “Season of birth and mental illness: a critical examination.” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 7, 206–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasamanick, B., Dinitz, S., and Knobloch, H. (1959). “Geographic and seasonal variations in births.” U.S. Pub. Hlth. Rep., 74, 285–288.Google Scholar
Registrar-General, Census 1951, Classifications of Occupations, 1956. London: H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Registrar-General, Census 1951, Statistical Review for the Year 1961. Part III. 1962. London: H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Sentrakul, P., and Potter, E. L. (1966). “Pathologic diagnosis on 2,681 abortions at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital, 1957–1965.” Amer. J. pub. Hlth., 56, 2083–2092.Google Scholar
The Times, “Rush of rebate babies,” 1966, April 27th. Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.