Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:1188-1192
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Biorhythms: fact or superstition?
DK Winstead, BD Schwartz and WE Bertrand
Although much has appeared in the lay literature regarding the role of
biorhythms in life events, few empirical data exist to support the notion
that biorhythms affect our lives. The authors first examined the
relationship between biorhythms and date of psychiatric hospitalization for
218 patients. They then compared the dates of psychiatric emergency room
visits for 386 patients with each patient's biorhythms. The results from
both studies failed to reveal a significant relationship between time of
psychiatric admission or psychiatric emergency room visit and various
phases of the biorhythm cycle. The biorhythm theory is much too simplistic
to account for the complexities of everyday life. Therefore, belief in the
theory is likely to be an expression of superstitious behavior.
