Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:16:34.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effects of climate on admission rates of schizophrenia patients to psychiatric hospitals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Roni Shiloh*
Affiliation:
Geha Psychiatric Hospital, Geha Mental Health Center, Beilinson Campus, PO Box 102, Petah Tikva49100, Israel Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Petah Tikva, Israel Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Avraham Shapira
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Division, Rambam Medical Center, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel
Oded Potchter
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Haggai Hermesh
Affiliation:
Geha Psychiatric Hospital, Geha Mental Health Center, Beilinson Campus, PO Box 102, Petah Tikva49100, Israel Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Petah Tikva, Israel Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Miriam Popper
Affiliation:
Department of Information and Evaluation, Mental Health Services, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, srael
Abraham Weizman
Affiliation:
Geha Psychiatric Hospital, Geha Mental Health Center, Beilinson Campus, PO Box 102, Petah Tikva49100, Israel Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Petah Tikva, Israel Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: shiloh_r@netvision.net.il (R. Shiloh).
Get access

Abstract

Data on admissions of schizophrenia- and schizoaffective disorder patients to Tel-Aviv’s seven public psychiatric hospitals during 11 consecutive years were obtained along with relevant meteorological information. Mean monthly admission rates were significantly higher during the summer (for schizophrenia patients) and fall (for schizoaffective patients). Schizophrenia patients’ mean monthly admission rates correlated with mean maximal monthly environmental temperature (R =0.35, N =132 months, P <0.001). The present study may indicate that persistent high environmental temperature may be a contributing factor for psychotic exacerbation in schizophrenia patients and their consequent admission to mental hospitals.

Type
Original article
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier SAS 2005

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

Abe, KSeasonal fluctuations of psychiatric admissions. Folia Psychiatr Neurol Jpn 1963;17:101112.Google Scholar
Canton, G, Fraccon, ILife events and schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1985;71:211216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, P, Fitzgerald, C, Monaghan, CInfluence of climate on the prevalence of mania. Br J Psychiatr 1988;152:820823.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Day, RLife events and schizohrenia: the “triggering” hypothesis. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1981;64:97122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixit, S, Bushara, K, Brooks, BEpidemic heat stroke in a midwest community: risk factors, neurological complications and sequelae. Wisc Med J 1997;96:3941.Google Scholar
Esquirol, EDes maladies mentales. A treatise on insanit. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard; 1845. 3132.Google Scholar
Goldreich, YThe climate in Israel: observation, research and application Jerusalem: Magns; 1998.Google Scholar
Gupta, S, Murray, RThe relationship of environmental temperature to the incidence and outcome of schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatr 1992;160:788792.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heh, C, Herrera, J, Demet, E, Potkin, S, Costa, J, Sramek, Jet al.Neuroleptic-induced hypothermia associated with amelioration of psychosis in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacolog 1988;1:149156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maeir, U, Aigner, J, Klein, HHypothermia caused by neuroleptics. Two case reports and review of the literature. Nervenarz 1994;65:488491.Google Scholar
Marneros, A, Rohde, A, Deister, A, Fimmers, R, Junemann, HLong-term course of schizoaffective disorders. Part III: onset, type of episodes and syndrome shift, precipitating factors, suicidality, seasonality, inactivity of illness, and outcome. Eur Arch Psychiatry Neurol Sci 1988;237:283290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mawson, D, Smith, ARelative humidity and manic admissions in the London area. Br J Psychiatr 1981;138:134138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myers, D, Davies, PThe seasonal incidence of mania and its relationship to climatic variables. Psychol Med 1978;8:433440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, WThe patient and the weather. Mental and nervous diseases, vol. Michigan: Edwards; 1934.Google Scholar
Pinel, PTraité médico-philosophique sur l’aliénation mentale, ou la manie. A treatise on insanit Paris: Richard; 1801. 10Google Scholar
Post, RTransduction of psychosocial stress into the neurobiology of recurrent affective disorder. Am J Psychiatr 1992;149:9991010.Google ScholarPubMed
Shalev, A, Hermesh, H, Munitz, HThe role of external heat load in triggering the neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Am J Psychiatr 1988;145:110111.Google ScholarPubMed
Shapira, A, Shiloh, R, Potchter, O, Hermesh, H, Popper, M, Weizman, AAdmission rates of bipolar depressed patients increase during spring/summer and correlate with maximal environmental temperature. Bipolar Disord 2004;6:9093.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, Y, Seidman, DField and clinical observation of exertional heat stroke patients. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1990;22:614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiloh, R, Portuguese, S, Bodinger, L, Katz, N, Sigler, M, Hermesh, Het al.Increased corneal temperature in drug-free male schizophrenia patients. Eur Neuropsychopharmaco 2003;13:4952.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperling, W, Barocka, A, Kalb, R, Suss, S, Katalinic, AInfluence of season on manifestation of schizophrenic subtypes. Psychopatholog 1997;30:200207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strous, R, Pollack, S, Robinson, D, Sheitman, B, Lieberman, JSeasonal admission patterns in first episode psychosis, chronic schizophrenia, and nonschizophrenic psychoses. J Nerv Ment Dis 2001;189:642644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Takei, N, O’Callaghan, E, Sham, P, Glover, G, Tamura, A, Murray, RSeasonality of admissions in the psychoses: effect of diagnosis, sex, and age at onset. Br J Psychiatr 1992;161:506511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization The ICD-9 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: clinical descriptions and diagnostic guideline Geneva: World Health Organization; 1979. editorGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.