OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with anorexia nervosa exhibit an abnormal pattern in their season of birth. METHOD: Case records of female patients presenting to secondary services in Northeast Scotland from 1965 to 1997 who received a clinical diagnosis of anorexia nervosa were examined. The months of birth of the 446 anorexic patients with a confirmed diagnosis were compared with 5,766 female control subjects born locally in 1951, 1961, 1971, and 1981. RESULTS: Patients with anorexia nervosa had an excess of births in the first 6 months of the year (p =.013). The greatest excess was from March to June. DISCUSSION: This provides further evidence that birth dates of anorexics peak in the late spring and early summer. There are parallels with the epidemiology of schizophrenia. The evidence suggests that a seasonally fluctuating factor, most plausibly an intrauterine effect of common infectious agents during the winter months, is of etiological significance. Copyright 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with anorexia nervosa exhibit an abnormal pattern in their season of birth. METHOD: Case records of female patients presenting to secondary services in Northeast Scotland from 1965 to 1997 who received a clinical diagnosis of anorexia nervosa were examined. The months of birth of the 446 anorexic patients with a confirmed diagnosis were compared with 5,766 female control subjects born locally in 1951, 1961, 1971, and 1981. RESULTS:Patients with anorexia nervosa had an excess of births in the first 6 months of the year (p =.013). The greatest excess was from March to June. DISCUSSION: This provides further evidence that birth dates of anorexics peak in the late spring and early summer. There are parallels with the epidemiology of schizophrenia. The evidence suggests that a seasonally fluctuating factor, most plausibly an intrauterine effect of common infectious agents during the winter months, is of etiological significance. Copyright 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Authors: N K Shuman; I Krug; M Maxwell; A Poyastro Pinheiro; T Brewerton; L M Thornton; W H Berrettini; H Brandt; S Crawford; S Crow; M M Fichter; K A Halmi; C Johnson; A S Kaplan; P Keel; M Lavia; J Mitchell; A Rotondo; M Strober; D Blake Woodside; W H Kaye; C M Bulik Journal: Eat Weight Disord Date: 2010-09 Impact factor: 4.652
Authors: Giulio Disanto; Adam E Handel; Andrea E Para; Sreeram V Ramagopalan; Lahiru Handunnetthi Journal: Br J Psychiatry Date: 2011-03-17 Impact factor: 9.319