Data on admissions of schizophrenia- and schizoaffective disorder patients to Tel-Aviv's seven public psychiatric hospitals during 11 consecutive years were obtained along with relevant meteorological information. Mean monthly admission rates were significantly higher during the summer (for schizophrenia patients) and fall (for schizoaffective patients). Schizophrenia patients' mean monthly admission rates correlated with mean maximal monthly environmental temperature (R = 0.35, N = 132 months, P <0.001). The present study may indicate that persistent high environmental temperature may be a contributing factor for psychotic exacerbation in schizophrenia patients and their consequent admission to mental hospitals.
Increased environmental temperature may be a risk factor for evolvement of major depressive episode in patients with bipolar disorder with psychiatric co-morbidity, at least in cases that necessitate hospitalization and at the examined geographic/climatic region of Israel. Further large-scale studies with bipolar depressed patients with and without co-morbid disorders are needed to substantiate our findings and to determine the role of seasonal and climatic influence on this population, as well as its relationship to the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder.
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