Admission rates of bipolar depressed patients increase during spring/summer and correlate with maximal environmental temperature

Abstract

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.