lnt J Biometeorol(1992) 36:195-200 =o: Bio--. meteorology Seasonal variation and meteotropism in various self-rated psychological and physiological features of a normal couple Michael Maes 1,3, Frans De Meyer 2, Dirk Peeters 1, Herbert Meltzer 3, Paul Cosyns 1 and Chris Schotte 1 Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Antwerp, Belgium 2 Department of Geophysics, Royal Meteorological Institute (KM 1), Ukkel, Belgium 3 Department of Biological Psychiatry, Case Western ReserveUniversity, Cleveland, Ohio, USA Received February 29; accepted June 12, 1992 Abstract. Recently, true seasonal variation with signifi- cant periodicities (circannual, semiannual, circatrimen- sual, circabimensual) and a significant meteotropism have been observed in a number of self-rated characteris- tics of normal man (arousal, mood, physiology and so- cial behaviour). In order to replicate these findings, two normal controls ( a married couple) were asked daily to complete a self-rating scale concerned with the charac- teristics mentioned above during one calendar year. By means of time series analysis, significant rhythmicities with recurrent cycles in the autorhythmometric data of all of the above characteristics were found. An important part of the variance in these characteristics was found, using multiple regression, to be related to various weath- er variables, such as mean atmospheric pressure, temper- ature, relative humidity, wind speed, minutes of sunlight/ day and precipitation/day. These results support the hy- pothesis that temporal variations in human psychologi- cal and physiological characteristics may be dictated by the composite effects of past and present atmospheric activity. Key words: Biometeorology - Seasonality - Chronopsy Meteotropism Affective disorders - Biopsychosocio- meteorology Weather sensitivity Introduction Recently, seasonal variation has been established in some features of normal man, such as mood, arousal, social behaviour, physiology, and also in psychiatric pathophysiological states such as incidence of affective disorders, winter and summer depression, suicide, homi- Correspondence to. M. Maes, Department of Psychiatry. University Hospitals of Cleveland, 2040 Abington Road. Cleveland. OH 44106, USA cide, and deterioration of schizophrenia (Aschoff 1981 ; Kasper et al. 1989; Maes et al. submitted; Eastwood and Peacocke 1976; Boyce and Parker 1988; Wehr and Ro- senthal 1989; Smolensky 1983; Landau and Drapkin 1968; Lingjarde et al. 1986; Souetre et al. 1987; Wirz- Justice and Richter 1979). In addition, the temporal vari- ation in the above characteristics of normal controls was found to be related to multiple cyclic subunits with per- iodicities occurring around 52 (circannual), 42, 32, 26 (semiannual), 18 and 8 (bimensual) weeks. Furthermore, meteotropic relationships emerged in the aforemen- tioned features of normal subjects and in the incidence of psychiatric pathology (Maes et al. submitted). Changes in ambient temperature, humidity, photope- riod, and in the occurrence of very dry, hot winds (e.g, Sharav, Foehn) reportedly induce psychological com- plaints such as insomnia, headache, restlessness, anxiety, suicidal ideation, physiological alterations in libido, body weight, appetite and tendency towards sweets, be- havioural changes (e.g. suicide, homicide, problems re- lated to person-environment interactions) and psycho- pathological states such as affective disorders, typical seasonal depressions and restlessness in schizophrenics and oligophrenics (Barnston 1988; Tromp 1963, 1980; Sulman 1982a, b; Maes et al. submitted: Dordick 1958; Brezowsky 1964; Souetre etal. 1987; Haggag etal. 1990: Kasper et al. 1989; Rosenthal et al. 1984; Pers- inger 1975; Sanders and Brizzolara 1982). The present prospective study has been conducted in order to replicate our previous reports (Maes et al. submitted) on seasonal variation and meteotropism in the following features of normal volunteers: mood, rest- lessness, feeling wide awake, quality of sleep, hours of sleep/day, energy levels, socializing, problems related to person-environment interactions, appetite, tendency to- wards sweets, and body weight. For this purpose, the autorhythmometric data of two subjects (a married cou- ple) were subjected to macroscopic and microscopic sta- tistical tests and to regression analyses in order to study chronopsy and meteotropism, respectively.