The influence of suggestion on suicide: substantive and theroretical implications of the Werther effect.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Humans↗
Biomedical subjects
D P Phillips
Publications and source records attributed to D P Phillips.
A dip in deaths before ceremonial occasions: some new relationships between social integration and mortality.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Ceremonial Behavior↗
Effects of continuous noise maskers on tone-evoked potentials in cat primary auditory cortex.
In nine barbiturate-anesthetized cats, cortical evoked potentials for tones presented to the contralateral ear were studied for the effects of continuous wideband noise masking. In five animals, input-output functions for tones were obtained in the presence of continuous noise masking at the same ear. Tone thresholds were raised by the presence of the masker, and they closely tracked the level of the masker, such that increments in masker level brought about tone threshold elevations of the same magnitude. In four animals, we compared the effect on responses to contralateral tones of continuous maskers presented to the same ear as the tone, to the opposite ear, and to both ears simultaneously. The presence of the masker at the ear opposite the tone had a small and variable effect on the response to the stimulus at the ear with the tone, whether or not noise was also present at that ear. Consideration of extant single-neuron evidence provides an interpretation of these findings. Whereas maskers at the ear with the tone are known to reduce signal sensitivity for almost all cortical neurons, the effects of masking at the ear opposite the tone (ipsilateral to the cortex) are likely to be very heterogeneous. It is likely that the perceptual salience of signals that have different binaural configurations to concurrent maskers resides in which neuronal elements are activated, rather than in the total number of cells excited, and it is perhaps for this reason that the evoked potentials show only modest effects of this masking parameter.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Multiplicity of inputs in the afferent path to cat auditory cortex neurons revealed by tone-on-tone masking.
This report presents preliminary evidence on the effect of continuous tonal maskers on the responses of single primary auditory cortical neurons in anesthetized cats to tonal signals across their effective frequency ranges 10 dB above characteristic frequency threshold. Tonal maskers had three kinds of effects. In many cells, the masker produced a generalized suppression of responses to tones across the response area. In some neurons, typically those with monotonic intensity profiles, tonal maskers on one side of the response area produced a selective suppression of responses to tone signals on the same side as the masker. This differential sensitivity to the masker is evidence of independent inputs to those neurons on the high- and low-frequency sides of their excitatory response areas. Finally, in non-monotonic neurons, tonal maskers at the high-frequency edge of the excitatory response area produced enhanced responses to tonal signals on the same side of the response area as the masker. We interpret this as a release from the effect of an inhibitory input located at the high-frequency edge of the response area.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
The birthday: lifeline or deadline?
This study of deaths from natural causes examined adult mortality around the birthday for two samples, totalling 2,745,149 people. Women are more likely to die in the week following their birthdays than in any other week of the year. In addition, the frequency of female deaths dips below normal just before the birthday. The results do not seem to be due to seasonal fluctuations, misreporting on the death certificate, deferment of life-threatening surgery, or behavioral changes associated with the birthday. At present, the best available explanation of these findings is that females are able to prolong life briefly until they have reached a positive, symbolically meaningful occasion. Thus, the birthday seems to function as a 'lifeline' for some females. In contrast, male mortality peaks shortly before the birthday, suggesting that the birthday functions as a 'deadline' for males.
Death↗
Exposure to New York City as a risk factor for heart attack mortality.
OBJECTIVE: If New York City (NYC) residents' unusually high rate of ischemic heart disease (IHD) results from chronic exposure to that city, there might also be an effect of acute exposure among visitors to NYC. We explored this possibility and also whether IHD is reduced among NYC residents dying away from the city. METHODS: Using all US death certificates for 1985-1994, we examined (correcting for age, race, and sex) IHD deaths in three groups: NYC residents who died in the city, non-NYC residents visiting the city, and NYC residents traveling out of the city. RESULTS: IHD deaths among NYC residents dying in the city were 155% of the expected proportion (p < .0001). Among visitors to the city, such deaths were 134% of the expected proportion (p < .0001). The proportion of IHD deaths among NYC residents dying out of the city was only 80% of the expected value (p <.0001). These effects are not due to nearby commuters, recent immigrants, local classification practices, or socioeconomic status, and they do not appear in other US cities. CONCLUSIONS: With both chronic and acute effects of exposure to NYC, these data are consistent with the hypothesis that the stress of NYC is linked to the high rate of IHD.
Environmental Exposure↗
Ambulation after transfer of adductors, external oblique, and tensor fascia lata in myelomeningocele.
Forty-seven patients with myelomeningocele underwent triple (adductor, external oblique, and tensor fascia lata) transfers or double (adductor and external oblique) transfers and were retrospectively reviewed. Six patients lost significant neurologic function during the 4-years 6-month follow-up. Thirty-seven of the remaining 41 patients had improved gait pattern. Seventeen required less bracing after the muscle transfers. The need for assistive devices decreased in 21 patients. Twenty-seven were able to ambulate independently postoperatively as compared with seven preoperatively. The muscle transfers are indicated in midlumbar and lowlumbar spina bifida patients to improve hip stability, control, balance, and gait pattern.
Adolescent↗
The Hound of the Baskervilles effect: natural experiment on the influence of psychological stress on timing of death.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether cardiac mortality is abnormally high on days considered unlucky: Chinese and Japanese people consider the number 4 unlucky, white Americans do not. DESIGN: Examination of cardiac and non-cardiac mortality on and around the fourth of each month in Chinese and Japanese subjects and white controls. SETTING: United States. SUBJECTS: All Chinese and Japanese (n=209 908) and white (n=47 328 762) Americans whose computerised death certificates were recorded between the beginning of January 1973 and the end of December 1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ratio of observed to expected numbers of deaths on the fourth day of the month (expected number was estimated from mortality on other days of the month). RESULTS: Cardiac mortality in Chinese and Japanese people peaked on the fourth of the month. The peak was particularly large for deaths from chronic heart disease (ratio of observed to expected deaths = 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 1.21) and still larger for deaths from chronic heart disease in California (1.27, 1.15 to 1.39). Within this group, inpatients showed a particularly large peak on the fourth day(1.45, 1.19 to 1.81). The peak was not followed by a compensatory drop in number of deaths. White controls, matched on age, sex, marital status, hospital status, location, and cause of death, showed no similar peak in cardiac mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings of excess cardiac mortality on "unlucky" days are consistent with the hypothesis that cardiac mortality increases on psychologically stressful occasions. The results are inconsistent with nine other possible explanations for the findings-for example, the fourth day peak does not seem to occur because of changes in the patient's diet, alcohol intake, exercise, or drug regimens.
China↗