I am appalled at some modern University researchers who reject all research older than ten years as not worthy of reference or quotation, as if a solid piece of evidence may decay over time like their all too fallible brains. I was challenged on this many years ago by an old friend, a wonderful traffic engineer from Perth WA, Dr Peter J Moses, who as we were discussing weather and mood changes said, “Oh I have an interesting piece of evidence on that”. He found the conference paper in his file, from the early 1970s in Vancouver.

Roer P O (1974) “Effects of some Non-Transportation Factors on the Incidence and Severity of Traffic Accidents”. Transportation Review, 10, 165-179.

Orne D E and Yang A H (1972) “An Investigation of Weather Factor Effects on Traffic Accidents”.  Traffic Engineering, 43, 14-20.

Traditional wisdom had dictated that traffic accidents will increase with precipitation. As the rain falls, the roads get slippery, and you have more accidents. What this research found was that the accidents begin as the barometer falls well before the rain starts. This is very significant for psychology, because it reminds us that we are “hard-wired” into the universe, and very reactive within our Primal Brain to shifts in the physical environment.

Mood and levels of anxiety and depression are seriously affected for many by environmental factors, and I don’t mean this in purely sociological terms (environment being defined as violence in community, criminality, drug taking, access to lethal firearms…etc). What these researchers found was evidence that if we watch weather and seasonal patterns, we can take actions in advance of predictable changes to lower our risk of worsening of anxiety-depression in some situations.

If a patient/client notices that they feel worse when there is a weather/season shift, or just that in a certain month(s) of the year they get worse and it’s not an “anniversary reaction to an earlier trauma”, then take their insight seriously. The research indicates it is very real indeed.

Best strategy is to visit the specialist book shop and buy a “Small Ship’s Log”, and start to keep a daily record of Mood (0-9), Energy (0-9), and Cognition/Concentration (0-9), at set times each day, but note weather through the day.  Where I have suspected with a client that there is a strong environmental factor in mood this has been invaluable and solid evidence of what might be the factors involved.  Once the Client identifies them, we make a “cunning plan” to out-fox the Primal Brain reactivity to the environmental change by sending different messages through specific physiological actions.

The message from this weather discussion is – keep thinking out of the modern PC square! As they used to say in the 1960s, being a “square” is so uncool.

Dr John C McEwan
At Monarch Psychology Rooms, Greenlane