정신분열증 환자의 출생과 계절과의 관계

Seasonal Birth in Schizophrenic Patients

In this study, to find out the seasonality of schizophrenic birth and to analyze the relationship between schizophrenic subgroups and their birth seasonality, we compared the monthly and seasonal birth distribution of 367 schizophrenic inpatients, admitted in the neuropsychiatric department of Mary knoll General Hospital from March 1982 to February 1987，to those of the general population as control group. And the monthly births of the subgroups classified according to the clinical subtype and course were also compared. The results of this study were as follows; 1) Comparing with the general population, the birth rates of schizophrenics were higher in November through March and the excess of birth rate during these months was 8.6%. In statistical analysis, there were significant excess of birth in January and significant deficit in June. And there were significant excess of birth in late autumn through early spring, especially in winter. The excess of winter birth rate was 4.6%. 2) In comparisions of the monthly births of each subgroups classified according to the clinical subtype and course (including 4 comparisions; paranoid type Vs. non-paranoid type, paranoid type plus schizoaffective type Vs. the rest of the types, schizophrenia Vs. schizophreniform disorder, subchronic schizophrenia Vs. chronic schizophrenia), there were no statistically significant differences in any comparisions. Therefore we confirmed the seasonality of schizophrenic births that there was an excess of winter or spring births among schizophrenics but the hypothesis that seasonality of birth is associated with an increased risk for a subtype of schizophrenia was not supported.