Abstract

TO STUDY THE SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN VARIOUS PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN PATIENTS VISITING A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN PUNJAB

Dr. Simrat Kaur, Dr. Gurmeet Kaur*, Dr. Kamaljeet Kaur, Dr. Dolly Singla

ABSTRACT

Aims: To assess proportion of patients affected, factors influencing the effect of seasonality and seasonal fluctuations in the affect and behavior in various Psychiatric Disorders. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out at Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda. Total of 150 patients who gave written informed consent and meeting ICD 10 criteria for RDD (Recurrent Depressive Disorder) comprised group 1, BPAD (Bipolar Affective Disorder) comprised group 2, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) comprised group 3, Psychotic comprised group 4 and (SUD) Substance use Disorder comprised group 5 were enrolled for study. The severity of various psychiatric disorder was assessed by using respective scales. Seasonality was assessed by SPAQ (Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire) and SATS (Seasonal Automatic Thoughts Survey). Results and Conclusions: The seasonality was found to be maximum in bipolar affective disorder patients followed by RDD then SUD then OCD and minimum in psychotic disorder and the difference was found to be statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Comparison of seasonal variations in depressive patients were noticed in May- July months and Nov- Jan months. Seasonal variations in bipolar patients were noticed in Feb-Apr, Nov-Jan and Aug-Oct months respectively. Seasonal variations in OCD patients were noticed mostly in Aug-Oct months. Psychotic patients showed seasonal variations in summer, winter season and some changes in spring season. In SUD patient seasonal variations in a year were noticed most in Nov-Jan months and in small proportion of patients in summer season.

Keywords: Seasonality, Psychiatric Disorders, Punjab.