Seasonal Birth defects ..Mental disorders

Seasonal Birth defects ..Mental disorders

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Seasonal Birth defects ..Mental disorders

Posted on 11th October 2013

The researchers found that all the mental disorders they looked at showed seasonal distributions. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder had statistically significant peaks in January, and significant lows in July, August and September. Depression saw an almost significant May peak and a significant November deficit.

"This result is further confirmation of seasonal variations in births of those later diagnosed with mental diseases," said William Grant at the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center at San Francisco, who did not take part in this research. "This implicates conditions during pregnancy. The two most likely factors are vitamin D status and temperature."

The differences in risk between the disorders could be a result of different factors, or the same factor being important at different periods of pregnancy, Ramagopalan speculated. For example, the same risk factor — say, vitamin D levels — could be important in the third trimester for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and the second trimester for depression.

"The major implication is that once we understand the cause of these effects, then we can intervene in terms of disease prevention," Ramagopalan told LiveScience.

Factors other than prenatal ones might be involved as well. For instance, children born late in the year may be relatively immature compared with older classmates, and thus do less well academically and socially, which might cause mental stress. "Further, we did not have details on socio-economic status or ethnicity, which may confound our results," Ramagopalan said.

Future research to understand the causes of these effects "would require large birth cohort studies to follow individuals over time," Ramagopalan said.

Ramagopalan and his colleagues detailed their findings online April 4 in the journal PLoS ONE.

My advise

1... Cases were infants and fetal deaths in nine birth defect groups born to residents of mothers in five counties of metropolitan Atlanta during the period of 1978-2001 and ascertained by the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program. These birth defect groups were anencephaly, spina bifida, total neural tube defects, cleft palate, cleft lip with or without cleft palate, anomalies of the pulmonary valve, anomalies of the aortic valve, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and congenital dislocation of the hip.

2...      We pooled monthly case counts and calculated monthly rates for each of these birth defect groups for five different birth periods: 1978-2001, 1978-1989, 1990-2001, 1990-1994, and 1995-2001. We applied the Cochran-Armitage test for trend to rule out homogeneity in pooled monthly rates. Data for each defect group were examined for possible seasonal (i.e., cyclical) variation overall and within the cited birth periods using the Hewitt-Rogerson test and the Walter-Elwood test.

3..       Graphical analyses of the pooled monthly rates showed no apparent seasonal patterns for any of the nine defect groups examined. Statistical tests for seasonality suggested possible seasonality for three defect groups: the Hewitt-Rogerson test was statistically significant for anencephaly (peak March-August, p = 0.048),while the Walter-Elwood test was significant for anomalies of the pulmonary valve (peak September, p = 0.02), and anomalies of the aortic valve (peak July, p = 0.039). With both methods, the results appeared to be influenced by the choice of time (i.e., birth) period. Results for anomalies of the pulmonary valve were statistically significant and more consistent with all tests in most of the time periods examined.

Drink sufficient water before and after you conceive.

4... Conclusions: Graphical analyses and basic statistical tests for seasonality showed no consistent evidence of seasonality for any of the nine defect groups examined, except for anomalies of the pulmonary valve. The two basic statistical methods coupled by a trend test for exploring seasonal patterns of the prevalence of birth defects can be useful for preliminary analyses of possible seasonal patterns. However, these methods have some limitations: (1) an assumption of no strong temporal trend over the study years, and (2) the results can vary by time period chosen. For specific hypotheses regarding seasonality, a more robust analytical approach such as time-series analysis might be more appropriate.

5....      The season in which a baby is born apparently influences the risk of developing mental disorders later in life, suggests a large new study.

 Past research has also hinted the season one is born in might affect mental health, with scientists suggesting a number of reasons for this apparent effect.

6....      For example, maternal infections — a mother may be more likely to have the flu over the winter. Does this increase risk?" said researcher Sreeram Ramagopalan, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London. "Or diet. Depending on the season, certain foods — fruits, vegetables — are more or less available, and this may impact on the developing baby

7....    Oxygen is important to develop brain cells and body cells....Provide sufficient oxygen to your Unborn child to avoid mental disorders

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