Psychologic Factors in Instantaneous Cardiac Death

That emotion may precipitate sudden death is part of world-wide folklore and goes back to antiquity.1 The influence of the nervous system on the heart has, of course, long been known. Its importance for sudden death associated with myocardial infarction was early demonstrated by Leriche, who found that denervation of the heart prevented most of the deaths that occur when the anterior descending coronary artery is tied off in conscious dogs, an observation repeatedly confirmed by others.2 Ventricular arrhythmia, notably ventricular fibrillation, is now recognized to be the critical physiologic mechanism responsible for instantaneous cardiac death. The triggering of ventricular . . .