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Season of birth of schizophrenics in Mississippi, USA
Author(s) -
Rodrigo G.,
Lusiardo M.,
Briggs G.,
Ulmer A.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1992.tb03274.x
Subject(s) - incidence (geometry) , season of birth , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , seasonality , demography , medicine , psychology , psychiatry , pediatrics , biology , ecology , physics , sociology , optics
Prior reviews indicate that schizophrenics tend to be born in the winter, relative to non‐psychiatric controls. This conclusion has been criticized, however, as the association between birth seasonality and schizophrenia may be the result of a statistical artifact, the age‐incidence effect. To examine this possibility, we studied the birth seasonality of 2892 schizophrenics, controlling for the age‐incidence effect. Both before and after instituting these controls, we found excesses for the months of December and March. We conclude that the age‐incidence hypothesis does not provide any general explanation of the season‐of‐birth effect in schizophrenia.