Myth Debunked: Full Moon Does Not Increase Incidence of Psychological Problems

Myth Debunked: Full Moon Does Not Increase Incidence of Psychological Problems
www.sciencedaily.com...

ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2012) — Contrary to popular belief, there is no connection between lunar phases and the incidence of psychological problems. This is the conclusion reached by a team of researchers directed by Professor Geneviève Belleville of Université Laval's School of Psychology after having examined the relationship between the moon's phases and the number of patients who show up at hospital emergency rooms experiencing psychological problems.

...

This study's conclusions run contrary to what many believe, including 80% of nurses and 64% of doctors who are convinced that the lunar cycle affects patients' mental health. "We hope our results will encourage health professionals to put that idea to rest," said Dr. Belleville. "Otherwise, this misperception could, on the one hand, color their judgment during the full moon phase; or, on the other hand, make them less attentive to psychological problems that surface during the remainder of the month."

I wonder if there are any forms to treating psychological problems, based on lunar cycles. Does anybody have any knowledge of this?

The "Lunar Effect"

Law and order

Senior police officers in Brighton announced in June 2007 that they were planning to deploy more officers over the summer to counter trouble they believe is linked to the lunar cycle.[9] Similarly, police in Ohio and Kentucky have blamed temporary rises in crime on the full moon.[10][11][12] In January 2008, New Zealand's Justice Minister Annette King suggested that a spate of stabbings in the country could have been caused by the lunar cycle.[13]

Hehe... dumbies

Believers (David Tredinnick being a prominent example) often support their claims by noting that many police officers and nurses have observed a lunar effect in the course of their work. To the extent that nurses and police officers do indeed claim to observe patterns, this is most likely to be explained in terms of confirmation bias: People notice if something dramatic happens during a full moon, but do not notice when nothing dramatic happens;[2] furthermore, dramatic occurrences that do not occur during full moons are typically not counted as evidence against the belief.[1] Believers are further bolstered in their belief through communal reinforcement: The more people talk about the effect, the more people notice spurious relationships.[1]

I can't wait for the day to come when silly ideas such as these are no longer present.

I'm looking forward to hearing from the ATS community and how 'this proves nothing'. Lets hope that this doesn't turn into what followed in another one of my threads:

Synesthesia May Explain Healers Claims of Seeing People's 'Aura
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Neat thread.

So the study was based on how many people came in during a full moon night?

That's not very revealing in my opinion. Just because people aren't seeking help, doesn't mean there isn't an increase in psychological abnormalities. The changes may not be big enough in people for them to go into a hospital (which is most likely the case, else it wouldn't be a theory).

I was expecting some psychological and physiological evidence, collected from volunteers and patients during full moons and other lunar phases. Perhaps a proper study, rather than waiting to see who shows up.

I don't believe the theory either way, however, I don't find this "study" to be worth the paper it's printed on.

i disagree, i've noticed people who always had temper tampers around full moon also that time of month for a lot of my girl friends was around full moons

Originally posted by Ryanssuperman
Neat thread.

So the study was based on how many people came in during a full moon night?

That's not very revealing in my opinion. Just because people aren't seeking help, doesn't mean there isn't an increase in psychological abnormalities. The changes may not be big enough in people for them to go into a hospital (which is most likely the case, else it wouldn't be a theory).

exactly what I was thinking....no one was claiming the moon causes full blown psychosis. They debunked a claim that no one was making. The claim is that people act a little differently during a full moon.

I have a degree in Psychology, and if i remember correctly there are legitimate studies that have shown people act a little differently. Could it be because they know there is a full moon? sure.

Well I tell you that it does.

Your sleep patterns change immeditaely if you sleep north/south instead of east/west. Why? Because of magnetic s.

Our Moon has large say in our magnetic tides.

When I worked in mental health we all dreaded the full moon because although your OP says different our patients did go more insane during the full moon, we always has more violent attacks against staff and more general carzy stuff happening.
Now I care for the old (with dementia) and we all still dread the full moon because people do things that are different.
So from my experience I disagree with the reports.

When I worked in the pharmacy, full moons ALWAYS increased our traffic of accident patients. In other words, we saw more prescriptions for patients who had injuries, versus illnesses. We kept records and tracked it.

Also, ask any teacher....we can tell the time of the month by the students' behavior. I've tracked that, too....as we approach the full moon, the kids get rowdier and do sillier things. I don't know why, wouldn't call it a mental illness, but it is a noticeable change.

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


Lol so 1 single study has debunked the full moon effect?
never mind all the anecdotal evidence by hundreds if not thousands of medical and law enforcement personnel
sounds like you "want to believe" and have jumped on a bandwagon
LL who's suffering from confirmation bias, now?


not even going to go into the occult side of things as you will automatically blank your mind given the evidence

Every single response thus far was predictable...

My favorite thing in the world is that the wiki page includes the term 'confirmation bias'. lol, it's soooo fitting

Never mind, yall are right... you have observed this, it must be true. lol

www.amsciepub.com...

Maybe 12 studies and a 20 year review is enough?

This is not even close to the only study that has been done in regards to this issue. But, I guess... none of them will ever satisfy some concrete false perception of reality. Hence religion still remaining...

sad, really...

The full moon always had a calming effect on me. I think it's just because it's so beautiful to look at.

I could never understand the lunar madness issue.
I wonder how many people use it as an excuse for bad behaviour?

Plus, it's always full, we just don't see the whole thing most of the time.

Wife is school teacher we always joke it's a FULL MOON !!

Growing up a friends grandfather worked at a very bad aslyum run by the state. They would just lock all the doors no food no anything during a full moon.

I don't buy it either. People do act differently in a full moon. Some believe it happens like when the tide goes in and out during a full moon. They believe so does the fluid in our brain making some people react differently.

Even our vocabulary say's differently. You see Luna in words like Lunacy or Lunatic. This is a very old notion.

Originally posted by TheLieWeLive
I don't buy it either. People do act differently in a full moon. Some believe it happens like when the tide goes in and out during a full moon. They believe so does the fluid in our brain making some people react differently.

Even our vocabulary say's differently. You see Luna in words like Lunacy or Lunatic. This is a very old notion.

hahahaha, your defense is based upon etymology, hahahaha, I'm sorry, not to be rude... I hope you can think of some examples that rule this logic as faulty.

What next? Do comets actually make people act differently, political upheaval and leaders dying?

Yeah, ok Nero hahahaha

Judith Weingarten’s second objec­tion is more ser­i­ous. Comets are bad news. Some authors like Aris­totle think they’re bad news because the con­di­tions which lead to things like civic strife also cause comets. Manilius closes book one of the Astro­nom­ica (from line 809 onward) with a descrip­tion of comets. He can be bleak like around line 893–5 in the Loeb trans­la­tion:

"Death comes with those celes­tial torches, which threaten earth with the blaze of pyres unceas­ing, since heaven and nature’s self are stricken and seem doomed to share men’s tomb."

I'm curious as to the phase of the moon when they did the study.
Any results reached during or near a full moon would be completely suspect due to the previous findings that the full moon affects psychological conditions.
So, even minor findings during the course of the study that were incorrect due to mental states created by a full moon could be enough to negate the idea that the study could debunk the initial idea that the full moon causes these issues in the first place.

Right,
Good deal.

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


Look just because you have read a report it doesn't mean it is true, I like many here have seen the effects the moon have on people. It does effect people and no report you find will convince me that it doesn't.
No matter what report you find I know differently...violent attacks on the full moon day in my ward increased 35% and on a more secure ward up 50% so if it isn't the moon you tell me what is it?

Originally posted by boymonkey74
reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

 

Look just because you have read a report it doesn't mean it is true, I like many here have seen the effects the moon have on people. It does effect people and no report you find will convince me that it doesn't.
Oh and you attitude to others here stinks.

Look, just because we base reality on the recognition of patterns to help satisfy our understanding doesn't mean that because you simply have convinced yourself that you've recognized a pattern and you attach meaning to such observations... means it true, because it doesn't.

Oh, and YOUR attitude towards this topic... lol, sad

I feel like I'm trying to prove that Santa Clause isn't real!

To each, their own... just please don't have any effect on peoples lives using your faulty reasoning, it is detrimental!!!

Here, yall want more?

Abstract

The lunar hypothesis, that is, the notion that lunar phases can directly affect human behavior, was tested by time-series analysis of 4,575 crisis center telephone calls (all calls recorded for a 6-month interval). As expected, the lunar hypothesis was not supported. The 28-day lunar cycle accounted for less than 1% of the variance of the frequency of crisis center calls. Also, as hypothesized from an attribution theory framework, crisis center workers reported significantly greater belief in lunar effects than a non-crisis-center-worker comparison group.

www.tandfonline.com...

Here, yall want more?

scholar.google.com...

Man, I wish you didn't have to pay for access to a majority of these articles.

You see, knowledge is power... keep the masses ignorant, with false perceptions and act accordingly I guess...

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


Wow I wish I could be so much more like you......
Excuse me the arrogance in this thread is starting to pong...
Goodnight all.

Originally posted by DerepentLEstranger
reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

 

Lol so 1 single study has debunked the full moon effect?
never mind all the anecdotal evidence by hundreds if not thousands of medical and law enforcement personnel
sounds like you "want to believe" and have jumped on a bandwagon
L

L who's suffering from confirmation bias, now?


not even going to go into the occult side of things as you will automatically blank your mind given the evidence

HAHAHA, 1 study? no, you want more... my pleasure.

evidence, lol... you're right, bias' never has a role and witness' are always correct.

"want to believe" ?

No, I believe that lunar cycles don't play a significant role in incidences of psychological problems, I just came across this article as I was surfing sciencedaily.com, which I do daily. And no, this is not the first time I've ever done some critical thinking about the topic.

Bandwagon... lol, you mean, not believing in some mythological bs is jumping on the bandwagon. right... lets hope we all climb aboard so people can stop acting like _____ and acting in accordance with some made up understandings of how things work.

Do you believe in Phlogiston?

en.wikipedia.org...

right...

I also disagree, and the study in the OP had some flawed parameters. It's junk science, like most studies are these days.

The myth is not "debunked" whatsoever. When it comes to human psychology, nothing is ever final and settled, and a study that looked for an uptick in psychosis in an emergency room only means that there are no more people seeking help during a psychotic episode during the full moon than during any other part of the lunar cycle.

Most people, when they start to get psycho, don't go the ER. It may take a few days to a week or more for their family to finally get them in to see a doctor, and even then, it's not always the emergency room. The study would have more validity to me if they checked to see when the initial onset of the symptoms began for people that sought, or were forced to seek, psychiatric help, and then see if it correlated with a lunar phase.

I used to work in mental health, and I knew psych techs in the local jail, and as far as we could tell, the full moon really made some people cuckoo. Not all full moons, either, but certain full moons.

I think more study, done with better and more comprehensive data, is in order, before one can definitely say this is only a myth. Anecdotally, it appears to be a real phenomenon.