Prevalence of neurotic, somatoform and stress induced disorders in relation to the seasons and climatic factors during the 2010/2011

Mater Sociomed. 2012;24(3):190-3. doi: 10.5455/msm.2012.24.190-193.

Abstract

Introduction: Psychiatric disorders have been considered to have seasonal variation for a long time.

Goal: The goal of this research is to study the admissions rate of neurotic and somatoform disorders, as well as stress induced disorder in relation to season and climatic factors during 2010/2011.

Material and method: The research was conducted at the Psychiatric Clinic, Clinical Center of University in Sarajevo. Randomly selected subjects (aged 5-89 years, 1316 males and 1039 females) N=2355, were interviewed by the Structural Clinical Interview (SCID) which generated DSM-IV diagnoses. In this retrospective-prospective, clinical-epidemiological study subjects were divided into groups according to type of disorders. Correlation between the impact of seasons and the rate of admissions to a Psychiatric clinic was analyzed. Certain data were taken from Federal Hydrometeorological Institute in Sarajevo about the climatic situation for period of the study.

Results and conclusions: From the total number of subjects who were admitted to the clinic in the period of 2010/2011 the most common diagnoses were F10-F19, F20-F29, F30-F39, F40-F48, and the suicide attempts as the separate entity. It was found the correlation between certain seasons and the effects of the certain weather parameters at an increased admission rate of subjects with the neurotic, somatoform and stress induced disorders.

Keywords: climate; meteropathy.; stress related disorders.