Handcuffs not only kinky, also deadly : Pure Pedantry

Reality is always more complicated than you think.

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.

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Handcuffs not only kinky, also deadly

Category: Public Health
Posted on: September 3, 2008 11:23 AM, by Kara Contreary

Okay, Jake or anyone else out there with medical training--is this for real? Apparently there may be a new syndrome whereby young men suddenly and inexplicably die following police arrest. The phenomenon is being compared to a similar one wherein wild animals up and die upon capture, and may have something to do with a surge of stress hormones called catecholamines into the bloodstream.

The research is being done in Spain. No deaths considered in this investigation were supposed to be due to mistreatment, but if this is at all indicative of how Spanish police bring people into custody, consider me a bit skeptical...

Hat tip: C.B.

UPDATE: Jake responds here.

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Comments

Just off the cuff(!) there doesn't seem to be enough info about this to reach a solid conclusion. They seem to have ruled out drugs, but I don't see any mention of the circumstances of their arrest, whether or not it's the first arrest, what conditions they were kept in, nor is there any comparison with other nations (or with the female gender). I don't see any autopsy info either. Presumably the actual study gives more detials, but whether that's enough is the issue.

Posted by: Ian | September 3, 2008 12:25 PM

It makes no sense that this could be something new. Violent capturing has gone on since the invention of slavery, so wouldn't somebody have noticed this by now?

More likely it's the police killing the prisoners, either intentionally, leaving little obvious evidence, or accidentally, as in suffocation by weighting the chest or hog-tying. Note that the coroner or medical examiner and the police serve the same paymaster, so take any official pronouncement with a shovelful of salt.

Posted by: Bill the Cat | September 3, 2008 12:58 PM

I can't in any way see how if this is real that it could be a new phenomenon. Like Bill the Cat pointed out violent capture has been going on just about for all of human history, this would have been noticed before.

It's far more likely that other factors are causing these deaths, could be malice on the parts of the police though I tend to assume stupidity first and that it might be restraint methods or the over use of tasers or similar devices.

Posted by: Noadi | September 4, 2008 1:21 AM

so this would allow police to get away with murder? awesome.

Posted by: anonymouscoward | September 4, 2008 6:47 AM