Relationship between seasons of the year and anxiety disorders

Abstract

Objective: Anxiety disorders represent risk factors for other psychiatric and somatic illnesses and represent the second most prevalent psychiatric disorders and the most frequent during an individual’s lifetime. This study was performed to determine if the diagnostic category of anxiety disorders has a seasonal pattern. Methods: This was a retrospective (a data-base was studied), cross-sectional (analyzing prevalence), observational (with no interven-tion), descriptive (did not asses causality) study to determine the prevalence and seasonality of anxiety disorders in a university hospital psychiatric outpatient clinic. Patients were identified between 2005 and 2014 using the diag-nostic criteria of DSM IV-TR; the year was divided into four seasons to assign the consultation date to one of these seasons. Anxiety disorder consultations with incomplete registry data or date were eliminated. Results: From the universe of consultations given (495,062), 13.7% were anxiety disorders, with these being the second most frequent category. These were distributed 24.91% in spring, 25.29% in summer; 26.56% in autumn; and 23.24% in winter. We also found no statistically significant association between summer and anxiety disorders. Discussion: There was no significant difference in the seasonal prevalence of anxiety consultations during the year; therefore, a seasonal pattern was ruled out.