Birth month and depressive and suicidal symptoms in an elderly Australian sample born in the Southern or Northern Hemisphere

Received 3 February 2005; received in revised form 24 October 2005; accepted 20 April 2006.

Abstract

We examined the relationship between season of birth and depressive and suicidal symptoms among 859 elderly outpatients. Date and country of birth were recorded for each participant. Those in utero during the Northern or Southern Hemisphere flu peak were expected to show the highest depressive and suicidal symptoms. Hypotheses were partially supported.

Keywords: Season of birth, Suicidal symptoms, Depressive symptoms

a Unit of Geriatric Psychiatry, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

b Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA

c Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 850 644 1454; fax: +1 850 644 7739.

PII: S0165-1781(06)00124-7

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2006.04.019

14 of 22