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Mood and Depression

R.W. Kay published a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, linking hospital admissions due to depression with days of geomagnetic activity. The researcher found a "36.2% increase in male hospital admissions with a diagnosis of depressed phase, manic- depressive illness in the second week following such storms compared with geomagnetically quiet control periods."

A shift in the production cycle of the hormone melatonin could be the mechanism. Melatonin regulates the body's sleep-wake cycle. Abnormal levels of melatonin have been associated with bad mood as in the Winter Blues and the Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The findings of R.W. Kay are supported by a study (Becker et al 1961, Friedman et al 1963) which also found a link between mental hospital admissions and geomagnetic activities.

Reference:

RW Kay

Geomagnetic storms: association with incidence of depression as measured by hospital admission

The British Journal of Psychiatry 164: 403-409 (1994).

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