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The seasonal incidence of mania and its relationship to climatic variables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

D. H. Myers  and
P. Davies
D. H. Myers*
Affiliation:
Shrewsbury HospitalUniversity of Birmingham
P. Davies
Affiliation:
Shrewsbury HospitalUniversity of Birmingham
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr D. H. Myers, Shrewsbury Hospital (Shelton), Shrewsbury SY3 8DN.
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Synopsis

Monthly hospital admission rates (HA) for mania were classified by sex, type of admission (first, or re-admission) and by country (England and Wales or Scotland). Of the 8 classes thus created, all but one showed a statistically significant annual cycle with a peak in Summer and trough in Winter. There was no significant difference in phase or amplitude between male and female cycles. A linear increase in yearly re-admission rates was found during the 8 years of the English and the 11 years of the Scottish data.

Current month's mean daily temperature (lag0) and last month's (lag1) mean day-length and mean daily hours of sunshine correlated better with admission rate than did the values for other months. In a multiple regression analysis temperature made the other 2 climatic variables redundant in accounting for variation in HA.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , August 1978 , pp. 433 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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