Seasonal Birth Patterns of Neurological Disorders

Torrey, Ε. Fuller; Miller, Jeri L.; Rawlings, Robert R.; Yolken, Robert H.

doi:10.1159/000026253

Cited by 109 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We suggest that part of adult brain tumor patients might be predisposed by seasonal or environmental factors occurring during the perinatal period or childhood, and this vulnerability may remain with them up to adulthood. Winter birth predisposition has already been found among other neurological and psychiatric diseases as well, and hypothetic mechanisms for this pattern are linked to pregnancy and birth complications, light and internal chemistry, toxins, nutrition, temperature/weather and infections or a combination of these [1][2][3][4][5]17] .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Winter Birth in Association with a Risk of Brain Tumor among a Finnish Patient Population

Mainio

Hakko²,

Koivukangas³

et al. 2006

Neuroepidemiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this study was to analyze whether winter birth is related to risk of brain tumor in a clinical sample of patients from northern Finland. The study group comprised 101 patients suffering from a primary brain tumor. When comparing births in winter to births in other seasons, a 1.39-fold (95% CI 1.01–1.77) excess of winter births among patients was observed compared to respective births in the general population (p = 0.026). Especially patients with pituitary adenomas exhibited a 2.5-fold (95% CI 1.5–4.4) excess of winter births. The authors conclude that the season-of-birth effect in brain tumor patients should not be neglected when the actual and important tumorigenesis is investigated.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Winter Birth in Association with a Risk of Brain Tumor among a Finnish Patient Population

Mainio

Hakko²,

Koivukangas³

et al. 2006

Neuroepidemiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The dependency of melatonin production in infants on season of birth is most interesting, especially considering the fact that melatonin is the signal that conveys photoperiodic information to the organism (2). Accumulating evidence about seasonality of birth in individuals with neurologic and psychiatric disorders indicates that the impact of season of birth may extend far beyond infancy (32)(33)(34). Epilepsy appears to have an excess of births in winter and deficit in September.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Epilepsy appears to have an excess of births in winter and deficit in September. Multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and possibly Parkinson's disease appear to have an excess of spring births (33). Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder have an excess of winter births, whereas major depression has an excess of spring births (34).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Melatonin Production in Healthy Infants: Evidence for Seasonal Variations

Sivan¹,

Laudon

Tauman³

et al. 2001

Pediatr Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of this study was to determine the normal range of nocturnal urinary excretion of the major melatonin metabolite, 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (6SMT) in a large sample of healthy fullterm infants (8 and 16 wk old) and assess whether the endogenous production of melatonin changes with season. 6SMT was assessed in urine samples extracted from disposable diapers removed from full-term, 8-(n ϭ 317) and 16-wk-old (n ϭ 93) infants over the nocturnal period (19:00 -08:00 h). In addition, 6SMT was assessed in 8-wk-old (n ϭ 35) healthy infants over the entire 24-h period. 6SMT was determined by an ELISA assay. 6SMT excretion at 8 wk of age exhibited diurnal variations with (mean Ϯ SD) 61 Ϯ 18% of the daily production excreted during the nocturnal period regardless of season. The nocturnal 6SMT values in the entire cohort (at 8 as well as 16 wk of age) were found to significantly depart from normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). A normal distribution was obtained using a natural base logarithmic (ln) transformation of the data. The normal range (2.5-97.5 percentile of the ln 6SMT excretion per night) was thus defined as 4.66 -8.64 (106 -5646 ng/night) for 8-wk-old and 5.19 -9.67 (180 -15,820 ng/night) for 16-wk-old infants. A significant effect of the month of birth on 6SMT production at the age of 8 wk was found (ANOVA, p Ͻ 0.002) with maximal levels produced by infants born in June (summer solstice) and minimal excretion in infants born in December (winter solstice). Short-photoperiod-born infants excreted on average about threefold less 6SMT compared with long-photoperiod-born infants (t test, p ϭ 0.01). The seasonal variations were no longer present at 16 wk of age. No effect of breast-feeding at the time of sampling on seasonality of 6SMT was found. Normal ranges for the nocturnal urinary excretion of 6SMT in full-term infants at 8 and 16 wk of age are defined. This enables the evaluation of nocturnal 6SMT excretion as a prognostic and diagnostic factor for child development. The strong effect of season on the normal excretion of nocturnal 6SMT at 8 but not 16 wk of age suggests prenatal influence of the photoperiod on the ontogeny of melatonin. The changes in photoperiod are major environmental cues for initiating seasonal acclimatization of thermoregulatory mechanisms and reproduction. In all mammals studied to date, including humans, the nocturnal production of melatonin by the pineal gland reflects the photoperiod (1, 2) and plays a key role in seasonal acclimation. Humans are not considered photoperiod sensitive, although some disorders such as seasonal affective disorders (3) and cluster headache (4) have been associated with a particular season.Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was shown to occur more frequently during the winter months, during the night, and during the first months of life (5). Some evidence links pineal dysfunction and impaired development with increased prevalence of SIDS (6, 7). A delayed melatonin production was found in infants who had experienced an apparent lifethreate...

show abstract

“…Prenatal infection also warrants further research, in particular viruses that fluctuation with seasons (e.g. respiratory viruses that are more prevalent in winter), as these can impact on fetal development (Griffiths et al, 1980;Torrey et al, 2000).…”

Section: Interpretation Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a sizeable body of literature linking season of birth to psychiatric and neurological disorders (Torrey et al, 1997(Torrey et al, , 2000. In particular, there is a large body of evidence showing that individuals born in winter and early spring have an approximately 10% increased risk of later developing schizophrenia (Mortensen et al, 1999;Davies et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Season of birth is associated with anthropometric and neurocognitive outcomes during infancy and childhood in a general population birth cohort

McGrath

Saha

Lieberman

et al. 2006

Schizophrenia Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The dseason of birthT effect is one of the most consistently replicated associations in schizophrenia epidemiology. In contrast, the association between season of birth and development in the general population is relatively poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of season of birth on various anthropometric and neurocognitive variables from birth to age seven in a large, community-based birth cohort. A sample of white singleton infants born after 37 weeks gestation (n = 22,123) was drawn from the US Collaborative Perinatal Project. Anthropometric variables (weight, head circumference, length/height) and various measures of neurocognitive development, were assessed at birth, 8 months, 4 and 7 years of age. Compared to summer/autumn born infants, winter/spring born infants were significantly longer at birth, and at age seven were significantly heavier, taller and had larger head circumference. Winter/spring born infants were achieving significantly higher scores on the Bayley Motor Score at 8 months, the Graham-Ernhart Block Test at age 4, the Wechsler Intelligence Performance and Full Scale scores at age 7, but had significantly lower scores on the Bender-Gestalt Test at age 7 years. Winter/spring birth, while associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, is generally associated with superior outcomes with respect to physical and cognitive development. D

show abstract

Seasonal Birth Patterns of Neurological Disorders

Cited by 109 publications

References 37 publications

Winter Birth in Association with a Risk of Brain Tumor among a Finnish Patient Population

Winter Birth in Association with a Risk of Brain Tumor among a Finnish Patient Population

Melatonin Production in Healthy Infants: Evidence for Seasonal Variations

Season of birth is associated with anthropometric and neurocognitive outcomes during infancy and childhood in a general population birth cohort

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About