Psychosomatic Medicine 66:372 (2004)
© 2004 American Psychosomatic Society
Mini-Series on Timing of Death
Kenneth E. Freedland, PhD, Associate Editor and
David S. Sheps, MD, MSPH, Editor-in-Chief
Many studies published in this journal have concerned psychosocial predictors of mortality, but very few have focused on psychosocial predictors of the timing of death. Over the past several decades, a number of studies have addressed the question of whether humans are able to postpone their own death until after symbolically important events such as anniversaries or religious holidays. To our knowledge, only one of them was published in Psychosomatic Medicine (1).
However, we recently received two manuscripts on this topic, both from the same author. One was a critical analysis of a previously published study, and the other was a systematic replication of an earlier study. Both manuscripts survived peer review, and we decided to publish them, along with an invited response from the authors of the first study. Given the persistent public interest in this topic, the controversial nature of the general hypothesis and of the studies that have tested it, and the rarity with such studies have appeared in this journal, we also decided that it would be helpful to include a brief review of this area of research. The review paper was co-authored by one of the associate editors, and it also survived peer review.
REFERENCE
- Phillips DP, Van Voorhees CA, Ruth TE. The birthday: lifeline or deadline? Psychosom Med 1992; 54: 532–542.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
