AIRhead HALLOWEEN RESEARCH REVIEW (1st of 2)--
Werewolves and Vampires, Zombies and Monsters

Items that merit a trip to the library

compiled by Stephen Drew, AIR staff

The final two citations here were included in mini-AIR 2000-10 (the October 2000 issue). The others are freshly dug up, so to speak.

HIRSUTE AND BI-POLAR

"A partial form of lycanthropy with hair delusion in a manic-depressive patient," H. Verdoux and M. Bourgeois, British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 163, November 1993, pp. :684-6. (Thanks to Peter Wu for bringing this to our attention. The authors, who are at the University of Bordeaux, France, report:

A 45-year-old man was admitted with a hair growth delusion and depressive symptoms. The delusion persisted for three years and disappeared after a manic episode.

DRACULIN

"Draculin, the anticoagulant factor in vampire bat saliva, is a tight-binding, noncompetitive inhibitor of activated factor X," A.Z. Fernandez, A. Tablante, F. Bartoli, S. Begu’n, H.C. Hemker, and R. Apitz-Castro, Biochim Biophys Acta, vol. 1434, no. 1, September 14, 1999, pp. 135-42. The authors are at Lab. Trombosis Experimental, Caracas, Venezuela.

LEGENDARY RABIES

"Rabies: a possible explanation for the vampire legend," J. Gomez-Alonso, Neurology, vol. 51, no. 3, September 1998, pp. 856-9. The author is at Hospital Xeral, Vigo (Galicia), Spain.

WALK THE WALK

"The Walking Zombie syndrome in depressive disorders," R.O. Sexton and R.C. Maddock, Journal of the Tennessee Medical Assoc iation, vol. 72, no. 12, December1979, pp. 886-9.

MONSTRE EN POCHE

"Epileptic seizures induced by animated cartoon, 'Pocket Monster,'" H. Takada, et al. Epilepsia, vol. 40, no. 7, July 1999, pp. 997-1002. The authors are at Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.

WEREWOLVES BY THE PAIR

"Lycanthropy in Depression: Two Case Reports," K. Rao, B.N. Gangadhar, and N. Janakiramiah, Psychopathology, vol. 32, no. 4, July/August 1999, pp. 169-72. (Thanks to Jody Tannen for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalor, India, report:

Two cases of lycanthropy presenting as part of a depressive disorder are described. The patients responded favorably to pharmacotherapy.

GARLIC, LEECHES AND DRACULA

"Does garlic protect against vampires?" H. Sandvik and A. Baerheim, Tidsskr Nor Loegeforen, vol. 114, 1994, pp. 3585-6. (Thanks to Alex Hillar and others from bringint this to our attention.) [Note: the authors won a 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for their classic report, " "Effect of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches."] The authors report:

Garlic has been regarded as an effective prophylactic against vampires. We wanted to explore this alleged effect experimentally. Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches instead....

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