[nbritton]

If you have, or think, you have schizophrenia like symptoms, what season where you born in? Many studies have noticed a correlation of schizophrenia with winter and spring births. If you are here on behalf of a child, please put their birth season in.

I have another poll just like this for mood disorders in the bipolar forum. It will be interesting to compare the the results.

Thanks!

P.S. This new poll should account for those that live in the southern hemisphere. Thanks Trippin2.0, et. al.

[nbritton]

Can an admin make this poll sticky for a week or so?

[faerie_moon_x]

Are you just asking out of curiosity? They are really careful about people doing their research on us for other reasons.

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

Are you just asking out of curiosity? They are really careful about people doing their research on us for other reasons.

I'm asking out of natural curiosity. I'm not a medical researcher, however I'm hopeful that useable data can be gleaned from this. There are not enough controls in place to produce a rigorous scientific result, but I still think we can learn something about our illness from it. My profession is engineering, the only reason I know so much about schizophrenia, mood disorders, and ADHD is I've been diagnosed with them since I was a small child. Using my knowledge of science and engineering, I have done everything I can to learn everything I can about these disorders at the deepest level. I have only one agenda, I just want to feel better. Going all the way back to kindergarden, I've had this disability for 30 years. I've seen every aspect of the patient side of mental health, including five hospitalizations, two of which were in state institutions. My experiences have spanned the gamut, ranging from not being able to tie my own shoes and being on full disability to times where I've worked for fortune 100 companies as a brilliant computer engineer. They've said my IQ was very high, but some days I can't even tie my own shoes! It's very frustrating to go from full remission to having a complete regression, and losing my family and livelihood in the process. Nevertheless, I keep trying, and everyday I learn something new that I can share with others.

[costello]

I could vote for my son, birthday March 21, the first day of spring. Where do you want him? Late winter or early spring?

[newtus]

i feel so weird being the only summer season that has paranoid schizophrenia

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by costello

I could vote for my son, birthday March 21, the first day of spring. Where do you want him? Late winter or early spring?

Early spring.

[tealBumblebee]

Google said Feb was early spring so I went with it.

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

Are you just asking out of curiosity? They are really careful about people doing their research on us for other reasons.

Why would they be worried , what are the other reasons

The reason they look at winter births is because of the hypothesis that people born in this time frame would be exposed to viruses and infections thus satisfying the contention that childhood infections are a contributing cause to sz.

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by tealBumblebee

Google said Feb was early spring so I went with it.

The month actually depends on where your mother conceived and had you. If you were down in South America, South Africa, or Australia our winter is actually their summer time, and vice versa.

[newtus]

well i was concieved in december. but born more than a month early.

[faerie_moon_x]

Originally Posted by nbritton

I'm asking out of natural curiosity. I'm not a medical researcher, however I'm hopeful that useable data can be gleaned from this. There are not enough controls in place to produce a rigorous scientific result, but I still think we can learn something about our illness from it. My profession is engineering, the only reason I know so much about schizophrenia, mood disorders, and ADHD is I've been diagnosed with them since I was a small child. Using my knowledge of science and engineering, I have done everything I can to learn everything I can about these disorders at the deepest level. I have only one agenda, I just want to feel better. Going all the way back to kindergarden, I've had this disability for 30 years. I've seen every aspect of the patient side of mental health, including five hospitalizations, two of which were in state institutions. My experiences have spanned the gamut, ranging from not being able to tie my own shoes and being on full disability to times where I've worked for fortune 100 companies as a brilliant computer engineer. They've said my IQ was very high, but some days I can't even tie my own shoes! It's very frustrating to go from full remission to having a complete regression, and losing my family and livelihood in the process. Nevertheless, I keep trying, and everyday I learn something new that I can share with others.

I see. i did a similar thing with posting a poll about cognitive functioning before, just to find out and really to show people on the board that the issues are common. That was a long time ago, now. I can't remember how long. It feels like years but I know it was probably only months.

[tealBumblebee]

Originally Posted by nbritton

The month actually depends on where your mother conceived and had you. If you were down in South America, South Africa, or Australia our winter is actually their summer time, and vice versa.

Um...Europe conceived and birthed? So Jan/Feb?

[dillpickle1983]

I was born mid summer, July 28th.

Sent from the pickle jar using Tapatalk.

[faerie_moon_x]

I wonder if it effects a baby to be conceived in one hemisphere and then half way through move to the other and be born there.

[The_little_didgee]

Very late autumn. I did not vote because I don't know what my diagnosis is.

Apparently my mother had severe food poisoning when she was pregnant with me.

[newtus]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

I wonder if it effects a baby to be conceived in one hemisphere and then half way through move to the other and be born there.

good question
becuase that happens

[faerie_moon_x]

I think that maybe if there is a corrolation between being born in the winter or summer and MI then maybe it's very small. At least it seems that way in the poll so far.

[punkybrewster6k]

Daughter in January. Conceived in New England.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

[nbritton]

Thanks everyone for participating! However, we need more people. Only 18 have completed the poll for schizo disorders, while 40 have completed the poll for mood disorders. Here is what I have so far for global results:

Season:	N:	Percent:

Winter:	21	36.2%
Spring:	14	24.1%
Summer	15	25.9%
Autumn:	8	13.8%
----------------------
Totals:	58	100.0%

What's interesting is that out of 58 people, not a single person has identified as being born in early autumn yet. Breaking out the results, 30 of 58 participants (51.7%) identified as being born between early winter and early spring! Here are the full stats:

Season:	        N:	Percent:
Winter, early	5	8.6%
Winter, mid	9	15.5%
Winter, late	7	12.1%
Spring, early	9	15.5%
Spring, mid	2	3.4%
Spring, late	3	5.2%
Summer, early	2	3.4%
Summer, mid	5	8.6%
Summer, late	8	13.8%
Autumn, early	0	0.0%
Autumn, mid	4	6.9%
Autumn, late	4	6.9%
------------------------------		
Totals:	        58	100.0%

[junkDNA]

i was born april 4th. it was snowing when i was born and thats uncommon for the area i grew up in. its interesting that we all have similar birth months

[newtus]

im one of the only summer birth months tho :/

[costello]

One of the theories I've heard about the winter month birth thing has to do with vitamin D. The mom maybe had lower vitamin D at the end of the pregnancy due to less sun exposure.

I remember once a woman came on a forum saying she was marrying a man with sz and wanting to know what she could do to minimize sz in her children. I suggested she try to schedule conception so the baby wasn't born in the winter.

[newtus]

but summer has significant number too

that means people were concieved in winter. right?

[nbritton]

Originally Posted by costello

One of the theories I've heard about the winter month birth thing has to do with vitamin D. The mom maybe had lower vitamin D at the end of the pregnancy due to less sun exposure.

I remember once a woman came on a forum saying she was marrying a man with sz and wanting to know what she could do to minimize sz in her children. I suggested she try to schedule conception so the baby wasn't born in the winter.

I personally back the theory of low vitamin D3 calcitriol levels in winter as a contributing factor in schizophrenia. Calcitriol, which is the active metabolite of vitamin D3, is an astrocyte glutathione catalyst and modulator. Neuronal glutathione is produced from astrocyte glutathione. The other theory is infection, but this would not explain why the best time to conceive is early winter. Actually both of these theories can complement one another, as infections are known to increase reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage... glutathione is the principal compound the body uses to defend itself against oxidative stress.

If you look at the stats I posted, 0 of 58 participates here were born in early autumn... and autumn births apparently have the lowest rates of mental health complications, but that would place conception at early winter. So all you ladies, in the northern hemisphere, I would literately wait until the day of Christmas or New Years to conceive a child.