It’s a bright full moon night as I write this and boy am I glad I wasn’t working today! I got several texts & snaps from coworkers saying how it was a ‘crazy busy day’ at the hospital. The fact that the term ‘Lunatic’ has origins from Latin ‘Luna’ for moon, is witness to the widespread historical belief that the moon plays a role in mental disorders. The moon can change ocean tides & evidence suggests that full moon nights interfere with melatonin & sleep, but can it change ‘mental tides’ & health of humans? Healthcare workers anecdotally or jokingly claim how hospitals are busier, how more psychiatric or intoxicated patients seem to come out of the woodwork, and how more clinical catastrophes occur during a Full moon : Fact or Fiction ? Almost 40% of medical staff in a study believed such a correlation exists.
Frankly, I was surprised to see so many studies on Pubmed on this – looks like the obsession with moon & disease runs deep! A 2008 Austrian study found no correlation between 65,000 suicide cases to moon phases, while another 2003 Austrian study found no correlation between emergency cases, moon phases, and even Zodiac signs. A 2022 Russian study found no correlation between psychiatric admission volume to moon phases. A 2019 Swiss study that looked at 18,000 psychiatric admissions found no correlation either, while a 2011 Dutch study found only a mild association to a full moon. Interestingly a 2019 study in China looking at almost 13,000 schizophrenia admissions found that such patients “Tend to be stable in the new moon, but their condition is easily aggravated during the first quarter and full moon“. A 2023 study also out of China suggested mild correlation of bipolar admissions to moon cycles.
A 2017 study out of Lithuania found no correlation of moon phases & intracranial aneurysm rupture admissions, a 2008 British study found strokes were evenly distributed in all moon cycles but ‘medically unexplained strokes’ were more frequent during a full moon. A more recent 2022 study out of Sweden looked at almost 3000 cases who underwent surgery for Acute type A aortic dissection and found a mild overrepresentation of surgeries during the full moon phase and speculates if increase in blood pressure from worse sleep is a possible reason.
I can go on & on, overall I find that most studies find either no or just a mild correlation, while some could be attributed to lesser sleep. This article does a good job of pointing out the errors, confounders & biases in such studies including incorrect methods of assigning moon phases to admissions. It’s possible that the historical & cultural moon-myth probably sensitizes us & creates an association and cognitive bias – busy days on a non-full moon day are “just another day” while a full moon day is judged as “oh yes, of course, it’s a full moon night ! “.
But am gonna say this – as a lover of horror movies, I kinda like this myth – something fun to talk about AND lets me whine & blame my bad day on something. While I am occasionally leery of our janitors carrying broomsticks around on full-moon nights, as long as my patients aren’t transforming into werewolves, I am okay with a little full-moon crazy action. Werewolves would seriously spike my burnout levels 😉 !
Don’t miss any future posts. Subscribe on email 📩 or follow on Facebook 👍🏽 | |
