Born Under a Bad Sign

[LadyCrimson]

Article Link

While the whole article is rather interesting, the fact that they lumped dyslexia into the "mental disorder" category next to schizophrenia and panic disorders in their graphic representation, while making no mention of it in the article itself, seems rather odd. Tho I must add that my husband was born in May and is mildly dyslexic...

 

Being born at certain times of year gives a small but significantly increased risk of problems such as depression, schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa. The question is no longer if the seasons affect mental health, but how. Pinning this down could yield vital clues on how to intervene to prevent mental illness.

 

[Blarghagh]

I don't really have anything important to add, but I just noticed the word dyslexia and it's spelling. Now, we have a different word where I come from, so I hadn't noticed before, but isn't the word 'dyslexia' an evil prank? Not a dyslexic person can spell it.

 

Same for stuttering. Try to get someone who stutters to say stutter.

[Archmonarch]

Heh. What's even more sadistic is that the fear of long words is named Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

[Kor Qel Droma]

Whoo hoo!! Panic disorders and Alcoholism for me!! OMG how did they know?

[Deraldin]

Whoo hoo!! Panic disorders and Alcoholism for me!! OMG how did they know?

 

You too?! Hurray for us!

 

And how does January get away with nothing?

[Kor Qel Droma]

I think it means that people born in January are extremely boring, Deraldin.

[theslug]

I got suicide/anorexia and dyslexia.

Edited April 23, 2007 by theslug

[Xard]

I think it means that people born in January are extremely boring, Deraldin.

 

:sad:

[Deraldin]

I think it means that people born in January are extremely boring, Deraldin.

 

Is that the same reasoning behind August?

[metadigital]

I am very skeptical of any article that doesn't cite sources. Especially one that claims categorical results from a study of 400 people, and especially considering it was possible to check one of the (unsupported) hypotheses against 750k people.

 

Even the study of 25k suicides doesn't give enough information to make an informed judgement on their data ... it wouldn't be difficult to give the basic statistics (standard deviation, alpha value, statistical significance ... ), we don't even know what the hypothesis WAS, and whether the testers failed to disprove it.

A recent study of more than 25,000 suicides in England and Wales found that 17 per cent more people who had committed suicide had birthdays in April, May and June than in the rest of the year. That’s late spring and early summer in the northern hemisphere. Similarly, people with anorexia in the northern hemisphere are 13 per cent more likely to have been be born between April and June than in other months. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s best to be born later in the year, however. Autumn birthdays are associated with an 8 per cent increase in the likelihood of suffering panic attacks, for example, and a small but significant increase in alcoholism in men.

Watkins and her colleague Kate Willoughby looked at a sample of nearly 400 women in the UK with anorexia and other eating disorders.

Stephen Miller at the University of Georgia, Athens, which looked in detail at patient records for 750,000 people, failed to find a similar correlation between epidemics and rates of schizophrenia.

 

What happened to quoting sources? Sample sizes? Confidence levels?

[Gorgon]

Complete hogwash.

[kirottu]

I think it means that people born in January are extremely boring, Deraldin.

 

No. It is because I was born in January and I

[Walsingham]

I got suicide/anorexia and dyslexia.

 

I'll trade you some of your anorexia for some of my Englishness. I need to lose weight, and you coudl try some sang froid.

 

More seriously, I wonder if it's to do with having to go through winter without anything to cheer you up like birthdays.

[metadigital]

If you take a holiday in a warm climate you can counteract that cold-bloodedness AND you'll feel less like eating hyper-caloric foods.

[LadyCrimson]

I am very skeptical of any article that doesn't cite sources.

Very sensible.

I was by no means trying to say I thought the article factual or something to base the birthdate of your children on - it's mostly amusing, with a dash of "hmm, interesting." I think even in the supposed studies that show a "season of birth" correlation, it's very small, like 5-10% - ie, too small to say with authority that seasonal birth is the true cause - it's all theory and a lot more testing would need to be done.

 

My guess is the article above probably heard of/saw such claimed studies as those linked below and made their own conclusions. Whether any of these studies are 'good' or specious is beyond me.

(linked articles are short study abstracts, no major reading)

Birth month and suicidal and depressive symptoms in Australians born in the Southern vs. the Northern hemisphere -

Cerebrospinal fluid monoamine metabolite levels in human newborn infants born in winter differ from those born in summer

Season of Birth Variations in the Temperament and Character Inventory of Personality in a General Population

 

Then there's the more cautious/dubious counterpoint view regarding studies such as these:

Does season of birth affect schizophrenia?

 

And if you want, you can Google season of birth effect and get all kinds of hits on the topic, usually related to schizophrenia, but other things as well. And often in PDF form, which I usually don't bother to actually read ...

 

What happened to quoting sources? Sample sizes? Confidence levels?

Even the 'well known big' internet news sites often seem, to me, to not really quote sources, beyond "in a new study in Sweden, doctors say..." It's all about writing hypothesis/opinion newsbyte articles nowadays.

[Kor Qel Droma]

I think it means that people born in January are extremely boring, Deraldin.

 

No. It is because I was born in January and I

[metadigital]

Did he wave his wooden leg?

[LadyCrimson]

I don't really have anything important to add, but I just noticed the word dyslexia and it's spelling. Now, we have a different word where I come from, so I hadn't noticed before, but isn't the word 'dyslexia' an evil prank? Not a dyslexic person can spell it.

 

Same for stuttering. Try to get someone who stutters to say stutter.

I forgot ... I was going to make the reply to this comment.

My husband has said similar things before. Another of his favorite things to say (nothing to do with seasonal birth stuff) is that dictionaries frustrate him, since how's he supposed to look up a words spelling if he doesn't know how to spell it to look it up?

[Kor Qel Droma]

Did he wave his wooden leg?

 

That reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago about this guy with a wooden eye. Wood turned out to be much cheaper than glass in terms of being a replacement. Then it went on about him asking this cute girl with a wooden leg if she'd like to dance at some function or something , and when he asks her she replies "Would I? Would I?" and he says "screw you peg leg" or something like that...

[Walsingham]

What is it with puns today? I heard such a bad one today during 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue' I fell over. No exaggeration, although I can't explain how.

[metadigital]

Did you drop your wooden leg?

 

Oh, and:

Did he wave his wooden leg?

 

That reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago about this guy with a wooden eye. Wood turned out to be much cheaper than glass in terms of being a replacement. Then it went on about him asking this cute girl with a wooden leg if she'd like to dance at some function or something , and when he asks her she replies "Would I? Would I?" and he says "screw you peg leg" or something like that...

[Walsingham]

Did you drop your wooden leg?

 

I wooden do anything like that. You'd have to be some kind of splinter faction to consider that acceptable.

[metadigital]

Splitter!

[Walsingham]

I'm not splitting. I was just momentarily stumped.

[Fenghuang]

Article Link

While the whole article is rather interesting, the fact that they lumped dyslexia into the "mental disorder" category next to schizophrenia and panic disorders in their graphic representation, while making no mention of it in the article itself, seems rather odd. Tho I must add that my husband was born in May and is mildly dyslexic...

 

Being born at certain times of year gives a small but significantly increased risk of problems such as depression, schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa. The question is no longer if the seasons affect mental health, but how. Pinning this down could yield vital clues on how to intervene to prevent mental illness.

“The question is no longer if the seasons affect mental health, but how”

 

The effect was first noticed as far back as 1929, when Swiss psychologist Moritz Tramer reported that people born in late winter were more likely to develop schizophrenia. We now know that for people born in the northern hemisphere in February, March and April, the risk of developing schizophrenia is between 5 and 10 per cent greater than for those born at other times of the year. The effect has been replicated numerous times over the decades and is far from trivial. According to a study carried out at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, the increased risk of schizophrenia that comes with a winter birthday is almost twice the increase in risk linked to having a parent or sibling with the disorder.

“A winter birth significantly increases the risk of schizophrenia”

Not convinced by the idea that winter infections are the cause, McGrath focused on the effects of a seasonal lack of sunlight. He was intrigued by a study in Brazil by Erick de Messias of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Baltimore, which found a raised incidence of schizophrenia in people born three months after the rainy season. Then there are the unexplained high levels of schizophrenia among children of dark-skinned people who have emigrated from equatorial countries to northern ones. McGrath’s own work went on to link schizophrenia in Queensland, Australia, with winter birth dates - but only every three or four years in a cycle that seemed to be in sync with the climate phenomenon known as El Ni

Edited April 24, 2007 by Fenghuang