精神分裂症 患者의 季節別 出生과 性別에 關한 研究

The Seasonality and Sex Differences of Schizophrenic Births

To find out the association between the season of birth and the risk for schizophrenia and to test a hypothesis that season of birth was related to the sex difference of the schizophrenic population, we analyzed the data of 1384 male and female schizophreic inpatients who were admitted to the neuropsychiatric department of Chonnam National University Hospital and Naju National Mental Hospital from March 1985 to June 1989. All of them were born in Kwangju- Chonnam province and the season of births were compared to those of general population in Kwangju-Chonnam Province. The results of this study were as follows ; 1) Comparing with general populations, winter excess of births in schizohrenics were statistically significant. Sex difference in the season of schizophrenic births was also found. Women schizophrenics had more prominent seasonal effects than men. 2) Winter-born schizophrenics had several characteristics, such as earlier onsets, shorter durations of hospitalization, more frequent recurrences and longer durations of illness than those of non winter-born schizophrenics. Seasonal effects on clinical subtypes, marrital status, occupational status, total educational years and places of birth were not found. Sex differences on these variables were also not significant. 3) When the year of birth was divided by each decade, winter-excess of birth was significant in patients who were born between late fifties and early sixties. Though statistically not significant, shifting of seasonality of birth between decades had occurred. Before early fifties, springand autumn-excess of schizophrenic births were prominent. After late fifties, however, winterexcess of births had happened. Generally, there was more marked seasonal effect in womenschizophrenics than those of men. Although we concluded that the season birth was associated with the sex difference of schizophrenic patients, we did not have any other evidence to support the hypothesis that interaction of seasonality of birth and sex was related to the risk for subgroups of schizophrenia.