Full Moon Sends More Dogs and Cats to Emergency Room

[Peter Filis]

The full moon seems to result in more injuries and illnesses in cats and dogs.

There just might be something to astrology after all...

Full Moon Sends More Dogs and Cats to Emergency Room | LiveScience

Regards
Peter Filis

[Old Soul]

My one daughter who worked with criminals and now as a personal support worker for adults with disabilities, says it is a known fact within nursing circles as well as jails and rehapbs, that on a full moon, mental illness is triggered as well as criminal behavior ( staff are in for a rough night)

I asked my neighbor about this who is a nurse for physciatry just to see if there was any validation as well and she said oh yes!!!

[realignedliving]

You should read the Skepdic's entry on full moon and lunar effects, which debunks and explains that there is no correlation between a full moon and emergency room admissions, psychiatric admissions, etc.. While very few, occasional studies do point to some correlation, the majority (most of them) do not.

I say the cat and dog story falls nicely into the "few, occasional" studies - I'd be really surprised if the data could even be replicated several times in a row.

[Old Soul]

which debunks and explains that there is no correlation between a full moon and emergency room admissions, psychiatric admissions, etc

Oh I dunno I think I will trust the testimony of the people I have spoken with, there are just to many who disagree with the above statement

[realignedliving]

"I think I will trust the testimony of the people I have spoken with, there are just to many who disagree with the above statement"

Just be careful that you're looking at what your friends are saying objectively, without using selective thinking. Like I said, numerous, numerous studies have shown no correlation.

[Mnemosyne]

I actually think there's something to this. I notice that "people in general" drive very erratically (really slow, really fast, abnormal traffic patterns) whenever there is a full moon. Traffic just *feels* different.

I know - weird. Probably my mind is emphasizing crazy traffic patterns whenever there is a full moon.

[faceshed]

thanks for the link to the skeptic's dictionary I've never seen that before, I read a few of his things and they are really good exept he seems to have the same problem my friend dose when viewing things logicly.
when me and my friend are debaiting something paranormal or whatever he seams to go into every situation with the intent to prove it wrong and assumes things are the way he veiws the world (nothing more then he can see touch ect.).
though the skeptic seams to do a good job of laying out the facts and it makes me retinks what I've herd about full moon stuff but what he said 'studies have failed to show a reliable and significant correlation' I worry about because I wouldn't put it past a person like him to shrug off evedance the rest of us would not -

why else would he be called the skeptic?

[realignedliving]

Nah, I don't think he looks at a situation to prove it wrong; I think he looks at a claim, looks at the scientific evidence surrounding the claim, and then makes a decision on what he believes based on the evidence.

"I wouldn't put it past a person like him to shrug off evedance the rest of us would not"

If the studies had shown a link between a Full Moon and various things like emergency room admissions and whatever, then I'm sure the page would read differently. If there are 95 studies that show no correlation whatsoever, and 5 studies that show a slight correlation, what's more likely? It's not so much picking and choosing which studies he believes, it's looking at the evidence as a group and making a logical decision - five studies that show a correlation against 95 studies that don't doesn't mean much.

That's kind of why I posted on this topic. One friend - who's prone to being biased - that claims that there's more activity on a Full Moon night VS. many studies that show there is no greater activity on a Full Moon night? Who's right? Who are you more inclined to believe? Your friend or the mass amount of scientific studies done?

Just some food for thought! I don't mean to aggravate anyone, but I thought I'd throw in an objective viewpoint in the mix.

[Old Soul]

good point to :-)

[Peter Filis]

Originally Posted by realignedliving

You should read the Skepdic's entry on full moon and lunar effects, which debunks

But why should we trust skeptics?

I would trust a review of ALL studies on full moon and lunar effects published by *neutral* reviewer, but not something from a skeptical website.

Sorry but I just don't accept the view that skeptics have a monopoly on objectivity and reality.

I'm skeptical of skeptics.

Regards
Peter Filis

[Matthew Shea]

My mom's best friend was an ER nurse for many years. She swears, like many fellow nurses, that the ER was always much more active when the full moon was out.

Personally, I think there's something to it, but I think the explanation lies in the subtle power of myths and legends and how they influence our behavior. People are taught, rightly or wrongly, that the full moon has special powers to transform otherwise normal people into wearwolves and other such things. Subconsiously, they buy into that thinking and behave accordingly when there's a full moon.

There's also the fact that, once your eyes adjust, there's plenty of light to see when a full moon's out. That's especially true if it's winter and the ground is coated with snow. My fraternity used to hold a "capture the flag" game in some woods behind the campus at night as part of pledge initiation. We never had trouble seeing. It almost seemed like daylight when there was snow on the ground.

[realignedliving]

"Ivan Kelly, James Rotton and Roger Culver (1996) examined over 100 studies on lunar effects and concluded that the studies have failed to show a reliable and significant correlation..."

The only thing the skeptic did was write a web page on the data, not compiled it in the study. The entire page is written objectively as well; if there was overwhelming evidence that supports full moon phenomenon, then the page would be completely different. One study that shows a slight correlation means nothing compared to 99 others that show none at all.

Why would you think a review of 100+ studies that show no correlation is most likely wrong? Is it because that's not ALL of the studies ever done on the topic were included? I would make a bet that the 100+ studies the researchers used were chosen in a random sampling way, so no matter how many times they've done this same study, they'd get the same exact results: No correlation.

I'd be more skeptical of people's subjective opinions and first hand experiences dealing with paranormal things such as this. I tend to err on the side of science and the evidence out there, rather than several people's first hand experiences.

[UHF]

Originally Posted by Old Soul

... that on a full moon, mental illness is triggered...

This is where the word lunatic comes from. Women's periods stuff/things work on a 28 day cycle too - I'm told. I find it odd that the size and distance of the Moon makes it absolutely perfect to cover the Sun for a total eclipse.