Mikutta, Christian A; Pervilhac, Charlotte; Znoj, Hansjörg; Federspiel, Andrea; Müller, Thomas J (2022). The Impact of Foehn Wind on Mental Distress among Patients in a Swiss Psychiatric Hospital. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(17) MDPI 10.3390/ijerph191710831
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Psychiatric patients are particularly vulnerable to strong weather stimuli, such as foehn, a hot wind that occurs in the alps. However, there is a dearth of research regarding its impact on mental health. This study investigated the impact of foehn wind among patients of a psychiatric hospital located in a foehn area in the Swiss Alps. Analysis was based on anonymized datasets obtained from routine records on admission and discharge, including the Brief Symptom Checklist (BSCL) questionnaire, as well as sociodemographic parameters (age, sex, and diagnosis). Between 2013 and 2020, a total of 10,456 admission days and 10,575 discharge days were recorded. All meteorological data were extracted from the database of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology of Switzerland. We estimated the effect of foehn on the BSCL items using a distributed lag model. Significant differences were found between foehn and non-foehn admissions in obsession-compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and general severity index (GSI) (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that foehn wind events may negatively affect specific mental health parameters in patients. More research is needed to fully understand the impact of foehn's events on mental health.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Translational Research Center 07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy |
UniBE Contributor: |
Mikutta, Christian, Znoj, Hans Jörg, Federspiel, Andrea, Müller, Thomas (A) |
Subjects: |
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health |
ISSN: |
1660-4601 |
Publisher: |
MDPI |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Pubmed Import |
Date Deposited: |
13 Sep 2022 14:28 |
Last Modified: |
29 Mar 2023 23:38 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.3390/ijerph191710831 |
PubMed ID: |
36078547 |
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
BSCL climate change foehn wind mental health meteorological factors psychopathology weather |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/172802 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/172802 |
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