Biorhythms: fact or superstition?
Although much has appeared in the lay literature regarding the role of biorhythms in life events, few empirical data exist to support the notion that biorhythms affect our lives. The authors first examined the relationship between biorhythms and date of psychiatric hospitalization for 218 patients. They then compared the dates of psychiatric emergency room visits for 386 patients with each patient's biorhythms. The results from both studies failed to reveal a significant relationship between time of psychiatric admission or psychiatric emergency room visit and various phases of the biorhythm cycle. The biorhythm theory is much too simplistic to account for the complexities of everyday life. Therefore, belief in the theory is likely to be an expression of superstitious behavior.
D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D010507:Periodicity