The full moon, and Lunatic behavior

[KG8]

In my younger days I never gave it much thought, but as the years rolled on and the data compounded, I began to see a pattern emerging. As young mates we would often go on "blinders" and drink for half the night, sometimes till the very dawn itself. Then a day or so later when the hangovers had passed we would look up, see the waning moon and say "Arrr it was the bloody full moon again." Some years later my mother was to take a job in a nursing home and she would comment on how the doses of drugs would always have to be increased over the full moon, else there would be bedlam in the wards as the mentally impaired old folk began ranting and wandering about. :poke:
How many of us begin to feel restless over this period? I know I have fits of aggression myself. They come out of nowhere and I feel like smashing the laptop or driving my car up the back of that slow poke in front of me! Madness? Quite possibly, but only temporary, short lived bursts. Studies have been done, like the patterns of murders. :bashcomp:

MURDER TIDES
At the University of Miami, psychologist Arnold Lieber and his colleagues decided to test the old belief of full-moon "lunacy" which most scientists had written off as an old wives’ tale. The researchers collected data on homicide in Dade County (Miami) over a period of 15 years — 1,887 murders, to be exact. When they matched the incidence of homicide with the phases of the moon, they found, much to their surprise, that the two rose and fell together, almost infallibly, for the entire 15 years! As the full or the new moon approached, the murder rate rose sharply; it distinctly declined during the first and last quarters of the moon.
To find out whether this was just a statistical fluke, the researchers repeated the experiment using murder data from Cuyahoga County in Ohio (Cleveland). Again, the statistics showed that more murders do indeed occur at the full and new moons.
http://www.innerself.com/Astrology/full_moon.htm

The opposite effect is also true of the new moon it seems and people are calmer and more relaxed. No doubt this is a good thing for us as amateur astronomers, who like to gather together under the new moon, for days on end. :campfire:

[erick]

http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_effect

to balance an astrologer's website. :)

[KG8]

keep looking erick, the truth is out there!

The moon and madness: a comprehensive perspective at
pubmed.gov , a service of the national library of medicine
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=7440737
... based upon both new data and that already in the literature, combined studies that used the same segments of the synodic cycle. Such analysis indicated a disproportionate frequency of abnormal behavior at the time of the new moon, at the time of the full moon, and in the last half of the lunar phase. These findings were regarded as generally congruent with folklore.
PMID: 7440737 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

[Ric]

I used to work as a "Bouncer" many many years ago and we would always notice a real increase in stupidity and fights around the full moon.

Cheers

[astro_nutt]

I work in a Sports club/Gaming venue and I notice an increase of foolishness..(for want of a better word) around the Full Moon time..I thought I'd start a market selling "Moonglasses" or "Moonscreen" lotions to combat Lunacy but they keep threatening me with the electric cattle prod....:scared2:

[Terry B]

It's a curious concept but the data doesn't stack up. I remember reading an article in the Medical Journal of Aust some years ago trying to correlate presentations to A&E with overdoses at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle with the lunar cycle. All overdoses in Newcastle were taken to the Mater (at that time. I don't know about now) so it was a good cross section of the entire city. There was no correlation with the lunar cycle.
I have worked in A & E and you will sometimes get comments like. 'It's a full moon and we have been quiet. This must be an aberation" I think we just tend to have selective memory about our busy nights and when they occur.

[KG8]

Relying on a single source, like an analysis of druggo behavior, would not give you a good representation of a population I would think. Most druggos for example are off their heads all the time, and an additional influence, like the effect of the moon (if said effect really exists) may be insignificant stacked up against a brain full of heroin. On the other hand a body of people who are sober and clear-headed might be easily effected by a full moon, and decide to "tie one on for the night". Then you might expect to see a lot of trouble in the drinking establishments on a full moon. But as far as a scientific analysis of the phenomena goes you have to begin with defining what exactly constitutes a body of evidence to substantiate it. Consider the question "do supernova exist?" There are trillions of stars out there and most people have never see one explode, but we only needed a few examples, or the evidence of a few, and the point was proved that some stars explode.

[Terry B]

Sorry I didn't elaborate properly. The study was of intentional overdoses ie suicide attempts not unintentional OD with junkies. They very rarely seem to make it to hospital as the ambos treat them on the scene.

[Argonavis]

The problem with social sciences is how easy it is to get the result you are looking for. How do you define "abnormal behaviour"? What window around the Full Moon (or any other lunar phase) do you examine? It is very easy to get a statistical fit up.

I would suggest that most studies show the opposite:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/112457344/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/amsus/zmm/2006/00000171/00000012/art00026?crawler=true

http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/56/2/221-a

which is what you would expect. Nil effect.

I mean, how could the Moon possibly affect human behaviour (except in terms of increased illumination around Full Moon)?

There is no theoretical explanation to account for this.

There are no reproducable studies to support this.

It is just myth and folklore.

The only effect of the Full Moon would be to bring people outdoors (except astronomers) for possibly nefarious activities.

[ballaratdragons]

I have friends in the Victorian Police Force and one day one of them said how he hates Full Moon as more cops have to be on Duty. He usually got stuck working those nights.

I queried him and said "has it something to do with the effect of the Moon on people?".

He said that the crime rate goes up because burglars can see better, revellers revel outside more, causing public nuisance, and the majority of woman menstruate at this time creating more domestic violence. He said it is bedlam on most full Moons.

I don't know how true all that is, but he said it is Victoria Police Regulations that extra Police are rostered on for the few nights of Full Moon.

[KG8]

I know how you feel Argonavis, scientists need to quantify and classify but some things just don't fit into the test tube. Science is divided on many issues and we could post up studies for and against all week. But the reality is "there is a phenomena" and it seems to effect a hell of a lot of people, as the posts above testify to. Perhaps those who do not see a relationship are not looking for one, or evidence of it has not ever crossed their path. I personally have never studied the phenomena but I know it exists, from personal experience and from the testimony for people close to me. If it were just my personal observations alone I would discount it as false, but too many other people back the claims up.

[jjjnettie]

People get up to all sorts of mischief on a full moon.
I reckon it's because the light's on all night and they can see what they're doing.