Lunar cycle effect on patient visit to psychiatry hospital emergency room: studying the ‘Transylvanian effect’ in an Islamic society

Assessment of effects of moon phases on hospital outpatient visits: An observational national study

Objectives

A vast amount of literature has been conducted for investigating the association of different lunar phases with human health; and it has mixed reviews for association and non-association of diseases with lunar phases. This study investigates the existence of any impact of moon phases on humans by exploring the difference in the rate of outpatient visits and type of diseases that prevail in either non-moon or moon phases.

Methods

We retrieved dates of non-moon and moon phases for eight years (1st January 2001-31st December 2008) from the timeanddate.com website for Taiwan. The study cohort consisted of 1 million people from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) followed over eight years (1st January 2001-31st December 2008). We used the two-tailed, paired-t-test to compare the significance of difference among outpatient visits for 1229 moon phase days and 1074 non-moon phase days by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes from NHIRD records.

Results

We found 58 diseases that showed statistical differences in number of outpatient visits in the non-moon and moon phases.

Conclusions

The results of our study identified diseases that have significant variations during different lunar phases (non-moon and moon phases) for outpatient visits in the hospital. In order to fully understand the reality of the pervasive myth of lunar effects on human health, behaviors and diseases, more in-depth research investigations are required for providing comprehensive evidence covering all the factors, such as biological, psychological and environmental aspects.

Does lunar synodic cycle affect the rates of psychiatric hospitalizations and sentinel events?

The lunar synodic cycle is often believed to be associated with psychiatric emergencies and exacerbation in various countries, including India. However, the scientific literature regarding this matter is inconclusive. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between lunar cycle phase and admission rates plus occurrence of sentinel events in the psychiatric ward of a tertiary care general hospital in India. All admissions and transfer-ins (N = 780) to the Department of Psychiatry between August 1st, 2016 and July 31st, 2017 were evaluated from hospital records by a blinded author to obtain sentinel events, like requirement of physical restraint (PR) and chemical restraint (CR), occurring on full moon days (FM), new moon days (NM), and control days (CD). Statistical analysis was done by comparison of proportions. Significant positive differences were found when CR applied exclusively [p = .0008] on FM and NM days, and its frequency [p < .0001] in comparison to CD. Frequencies of parenteral [p = .0001] and per oral [p = .0064] modes of CR applied on FM and NM days showed significant positive results when compared with CD. Use of all restraints (PR plus CR) [p = .0017] and their frequencies [p < .0001] on FM and NM days were also positively significant. Sentinel events, such as use of restraints, especially chemical ones, in psychiatry in-patients are significantly more common during full moon and new moon phases.