Sensitivity to Climate and Weather Changes in Euthymic Bipolar Subjects: Association With Suicide Attempts

Abstract

Background: Climate and weather are known to affect multiple areas of human life, including mental health. In bipolar disorder (BD), seasonality represents an environmental trigger for mood switches, and climatic variables may contribute to recurrences. Several studies reported seasonal and climatic-related variations in the rate of suicide attempts. Suicide risk is relevant in BD, with approximately 25% of patients attempting suicide. Therefore, this study aimed to assess sensitivity to weather and climatic variations in BD subjects and its relationship with lifetime suicide attempts. Methods: Three hundred fifty-two euthymic BD and 352 healthy control subjects, homogeneous with respect to socio-demographic characteristics, were enrolled. All participants were administered the METEO-Questionnaire (METEO-Q) to evaluate susceptibility to weather and climatic changes. We also investigated the potential relationship between sensitivity to climate and weather and lifetime suicide attempts in BD patients. Results: METEO-Q scores and the number of subjects reaching the cutoff for meteorosensitivity/meteoropathy were significantly higher in BD patients. Within the clinical group, BD subjects with lifetime suicide attempts obtained higher METEO-Q scores, with no differences between BD-I and BD-II. The number of suicide attempts directly correlated with METEO-Q scores. The presence of suicide attempts was associated with the physical and psychological symptoms related to weather variations. Discussion: Our findings support the relevance of sensitivity to weather and climate variations in a large sample of BD subjects and point out the association of this feature with lifetime suicide attempts.

Personality profiles and meteoropathy intensity: A comparative study between young and older adults

“…Lastly, we found higher meteorosensitivity and meteoropathy intensity among the female participants in both age groups. This result is not only consistent with our final hypothesis, but also reflects other authors’ observations [ 11 , 26 ] for example, Connolly [ 10 ] showed that women are more prone to reacting to environmental factors, which relates especially to poor life satisfaction. Interestingly, low life satisfaction from several domains of functioning (e.g., job and health situation) is the worst on rainy days.…”

Affective Temperaments and Meteoropathy Among Women: A Cross-sectional Study

“…Serotonin, involved in the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, can contribute to the development of two important meteoropathy components: anxiety and depression [32]. In a recent work, Di Nicola et al [47] indicated that meteorological factors such as sunlight or atmospheric pressure are associated with changes in the level of serotonin in the brain, which-in addition to dysfunction in the dopaminergic system-may be important for the process of emotion dysregulation. In…”

Climate change, trauma and mental health in Italy: a scoping review

“…However, despite the relevance of climate change for this geographical area, there is little research specific to Italy or to the Mediterranean region on mental health and climate change (Aguglia et al, 2019 ; Di Giorgi, Michielin, & Michielin, 2020 ; Di Nicola et al, 2020 ; Oudin Åström et al, 2015 ; Preti, Lentini, & Maugeri, 2007 ; Rotgé, Fossati, & Lemogne, 2014 ). This is again in contrast with the attention given to physical health (Ministero della Salute, 2019 ; World Health Organization, 2018 ).…”