title: Monthly variation in the care-based incidence of psychopathology.
abstract: Monthly first-contact data from the Groningen Psychiatric Case Register were used to study seasonal variation in the care-based incidence of psychiatric morbidity. Both overall and diagnosis-specific rates for a 15-year period (1976-1990) were examined. Regression analysis of overall rates revealed significant monthly deviations from the linear trend. Inspection of diagnosis-specific rates showed that the monthly number of first contacts varied most in patients with relatively mild psychiatric problems such as neuroses. Seasonal variation is believed to be a consequence of both fluctuations in true psychiatric morbidity and 'holiday effects' on supply of services and/or the inclination to ask for help. The relative influence of holiday effects is assumed to be inversely related to psychiatric severity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Oldehinkel
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012621:Seasons