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With this comprehensive review, Samuels aims to identify the mechanisms common to a diversity of sudden death syndromes. These range widely and include sudden death in middle-aged men, sudden infant death syndrome, sudden unexpected nocturnal death syndrome, and being frightened to death (“voodoo” death), as well as sudden death during an epileptic seizure, during natural catastrophe, associated with recreational drug abuse, in wild and domestic animals, during asthma attacks, during the alcohol withdrawal syndrome, during grief after a major loss, during panic attacks, from mental stress, and during war.
After marshalling an impressive array of anthropologic, clinical, pathologic, and experimental evidence, the author concludes that overact…