[Accidents a matter of chance? The significance of lunar phases and biorhythms in trauma patients].

The belief that supernatural forces influence man's fate appears to be increasing. Many people are convinced that unknown forces can cause injuries. From a multitude of proposed possibilities, we selected two factors that are claimed to affect the incidence of accidents. The first theory holds that more accidents occur at the time of full moon. The second theory concerns the three so-called biorhythms with their supposedly critical days (physical, emotional, intellectual). The effect of the lunar phase and the three biorhythms on accidents was determined from the dates of accident and birth of trauma patients admitted to the University Hospital in Groningen. We analysed data on all 29085 patients who were seen at the outpatient department in the years 1981-1983 and on 930 severely injury patients admitted in the years 1985-1989. At full moon even slightly fewer patients than expected (24 percent vs 25 percent) were seen at the emergency department. The number of severely injured patients was the same during the four moon phases. The 'critical' biorhythm days were not associated with increased number of accidents, neither for the patients seen at the emergency department, nor for the severely injured patients.