MIDAS Project Publication Abstracts
Posternak, M. & Zimmerman, M. Lack of association between
seasonality and psychopathology in psychiatric outpatients. Psychiatry
Research, 2005, 112, 187-194.
There exists an extensive literature documenting the impact of
seasonality on rates of depression, atypical depression, bulimia
and suicide. In the present report drawn from the Rhode Island Methods
to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) project, we
reviewed the results of 1500 diagnostic evaluations of patients
who presented to our psychiatric outpatient practice between 1995-2005.
We sought to determine whether seasonal fluctuations in psychopathology
were discernible at the level of how patients present for psychiatric
treatment. Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not find (1) higher
rates of onset of major depressive disorder in the spring and fall,
(2) higher rates of depressive symptoms or rates of atypical depression
in the winter, (3) higher rates of bulimia in the winter, or (4)
higher rates of suicidal ideation in the spring. We conclude from
these results that the association between seasonality and psychopathology
may not discernible at the level of presentations to an outpatient
psychiatric practice.
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