Citation

Berk M, Terre-Blanche MJ, Maude C, Lucas MD, Mendelsohn M, O'Neill-Kerr AJ. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Psychiatry 1996; 30(2): 220-222.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8811264

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The association between winter birth and increased incidence of schizophrenia is well documented in the northern hemisphere. The present study examined season of birth and schizophrenia in a southern hemisphere population from a mild temperate climate. METHOD: The seasonal incidence of birth in schizophrenic patients was compared, using Chi-squared tests, to normative population birth rates. RESULTS: A statistically significant seasonal pattern, with a peak in late spring and early summer, was obtained. CONCLUSION: This supports northern hemisphere findings regarding calendar month, but not season, of excess schizophrenic births. This has implications for viral and other aetiological hypotheses dependent on meteorological factors.

Language: en