There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
An excess pattern of winter and spring birth, of those later diagnosed as schizophrenic,
has been clearly identified in most Northern Hemisphere samples with none or lesser
variation in Equatorial or Southern Hemisphere samples. Pregnancy and birth complications,
seasonal variations in light, weather, temperature, nutrition, toxins, body chemistry
and gene expression have all been hypothesized as possible causes. In this study,
the hypothesis was tested that seasonal variation in the geomagnetic field of the
earth primarily as a result of geomagnetic storms (GMS) at crucial periods in intrauterine
brain development, during months 2 to 7 of gestation could affect the later rate of
development of schizophrenia. The biological plausibility of this hypothesis is also
briefly reviewed. A sample of eight representative published studies of schizophrenic
monthly birth variation were compared with averaged geomagnetic disturbance using
two global indices (AA*) and (aa). Three samples showed a significant negative correlation
to both geomagnetic indices, a further three a significant negative correlation to
one of the geomagnetic indices, one showed no significant correlation to either index
and one showed a significant positive correlation to one index. It is suggested that
these findings are all consistent with the hypothesis and that geomagnetic disturbance
or factors associated with this disturbance should be further investigated in birth
seasonality studies.