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Season of Birth and Childhood Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Eric Fombonne
Eric Fombonne*
Affiliation:
Centre Alfred Binet, 76 Avenue Edison, 75013 Paris, France
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Abstract

This paper reports a test of the hypothesis that winter birth is a risk factor for childhood psychosis. All psychotic children (n = 208) admitted to a day-treatment facility in Paris from 1960 through to 1986 were compared with 1040 controls matched by sex and year of birth. Risk ratio estimates were computed for each month, and a significant increase was observed for boys born in December. This association was stronger in some years than in others. The fact that there were no excesses in contiguous months detracts from the persuasiveness of this association.

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Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 155 , Issue 5 , November 1989 , pp. 655 - 661
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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