Private Clinic Meiringen, 3860 Meiringen, Switzerland.
Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, 3000 Bern, Switzerland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 30;19(17):10831. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710831.
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) ( < 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.
精神疾病患者特别容易受到强天气刺激的影响，如焚风，这是阿尔卑斯山地区的一种热风气。然而，关于它对心理健康的影响的研究还很缺乏。本研究调查了焚风对位于瑞士阿尔卑斯山焚风地区的一家精神病院患者的影响。分析基于从入院和出院的常规记录中获得的匿名数据集，包括简明症状检查表（BSCL）问卷以及社会人口统计学参数（年龄、性别和诊断）。在 2013 年至 2020 年期间，共记录了 10456 个入院日和 10575 个出院日。所有气象数据均从瑞士联邦气象和气候局的数据库中提取。我们使用分布式滞后模型估计了焚风对 BSCL 项目的影响。在强迫观念-强迫行为、人际关系敏感、抑郁、焦虑、恐怖焦虑、偏执观念和总体严重指数（GSI）方面，焚风和非焚风入院之间存在显著差异（<0.05）。我们的研究结果表明，焚风事件可能会对患者的特定心理健康参数产生负面影响。需要进一步的研究来全面了解焚风事件对心理健康的影响。
