Relative Humidity and Manic Admissions in the London Area

Abstract

This report describes an investigation into a possible relationship between barometric pressure and relative humidity, and depressive and manic admissions in the London area. A negative correlation between manic admissions and relative humidity was observed when the data were examined in several ways.

Does the weather influence dementia admissions?

“…The inverse relationship between admissions of some aective disorders and relative humidity (Mawson and Smith, 1981) may explain a somewhat similar pattern in dementia admissions found in the study. This could apply to either an underlying aective component in the dementia syndrome itself or that related to carer's dysphoric mood due to stress.…”

“…Weather conditions on the same admission day did not appear to have any association with number of admissions for either diagnosis. Because of the day-of-the-week variation, the patterns of relative humidity, diurnal variations in temperature and number of dementia admissions were plotted on the basis of 13 28-day periods (Mawson and Smith, 1981). Fig.…”

“…After assessing a day-of-the-week variation in admissions, the data were therefore considered in respect of 13 28-day periods instead of calendar months, as the latter contained an uneven number of days of the week (Mawson and Smith, 1981). Daily means of values of humidity and sunshine hours and daily number of admissions for dierent diagnoses as de®ned in ICD-9 were used as units in the analysis.…”

“…Sayer et al (1991) in New Zealand reported signi®cant associations between mean daily temperature and day length and number of admissions for mania. A negative correlation between relative humidity and admissions for mania has also been reported (Mawson and Smith, 1981).…”

The Role of Environmental Influences on Schizophrenia Admissions in Israel

“…One explanatory approach focuses on meteorological variables (such as photoperiod and temperature) as primarily driving the seasonal variability in hospital admissions. The importance of these variables is well established for affective disorders (Myers & Davies, 1978;Mawson & Smith, 1981;Parker & Walter, 1982;Silverstone et al, 1995;Morken et al, 2002;Hakkarainen et al, 2003;Volpe & del Porte, 2006;Lee et al, 2007;Boker et al, 2008). Their role in schizophrenia is less extensively characterized, although a correlation between monthly admission rates and mean maximal monthly temperature has been found by some investigators (Gupta & Murray, 1992;Shiloh et al, 2005).…”