Daily weather variables and affective disorder admissions to psychiatric hospitals. 2014

Stephen McWilliams, and Anthony Kinsella, and Eadbhard O'Callaghan
St John of God Hospital, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, Ireland, drstevemb@gmail.com.

Numerous studies have reported that admission rates in patients with affective disorders are subject to seasonal variation. Notwithstanding, there has been limited evaluation of the degree to which changeable daily meteorological patterns influence affective disorder admission rates. A handful of small studies have alluded to a potential link between psychiatric admission rates and meteorological variables such as environmental temperature (heat waves in particular), wind direction and sunshine. We used the Kruskal-Wallis test, ARIMA and time-series regression analyses to examine whether daily meteorological variables--namely wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, rainfall, hours of sunshine, sunlight radiation and temperature--influence admission rates for mania and depression across 12 regions in Ireland over a 31-year period. Although we found some very weak but interesting trends for barometric pressure in relation to mania admissions, daily meteorological patterns did not appear to affect hospital admissions overall for mania or depression. Our results do not support the small number of papers to date that suggest a link between daily meteorological variables and affective disorder admissions. Further study is needed.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007494 Ireland A country in western Europe, occupying five-sixths of the island of Ireland in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain. The capital is Dublin. Eire,Ireland, Republic of,Irish Free State
D008297 Male Males
D005260 Female Females
D006760 Hospitalization The confinement of a patient in a hospital. Hospitalizations
D006778 Hospitals, Psychiatric Special hospitals which provide care to the mentally ill patient. Mental Hospitals,Hospitals, Mental,Mental Institutions,Psychiatric Hospitals,Hospital, Mental,Hospital, Psychiatric,Institution, Mental,Institutions, Mental,Mental Hospital,Mental Institution,Psychiatric Hospital
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D014887 Weather The state of the ATMOSPHERE over minutes to months. Fog,Fogs
D019964 Mood Disorders Those disorders that have a disturbance in mood as their predominant feature. Affective Disorders,Affective Disorder,Disorder, Affective,Disorder, Mood,Disorders, Affective,Disorders, Mood,Mood Disorder

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