If one searches for the term “Halloween” in Pubmed, the database for the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, a few articles (out of 53) are related to psychiatry:

• Halloween psychosis. (No abstract! Feh.)
• Halloween, the 50-Megaton Bomb, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. (From the Journal of Analytical Psychology. No further comment.)

Quite a few are related to insects, usually in reference to Halloween genes.

There are also a couple of articles related to a specific breed of pumpkin. (”Pumpkin” is such a cute word!)

Some of the most interesting are related to emergency medicine:

• Eye injuries from eggs (or, more precisely, “blunt ocular trauma resulting from thrown eggs“; the authors conclude that the press should not condone the throwing of eggs)
• Some depraved souls apparently still insert needles into apples.
• Still other nefarious characters taint pastries: The case of the slandered Halloween cupcake

The radiologists opine, too: Should we X-ray Halloween candy?

The CDC published two pieces:

• Childhood pedestrian deaths during Halloween - United States, 1975-1996 (”The findings indicate that the number of childhood pedestrian deaths increased fourfold among children on Halloween evenings when compared with all other evenings.”)
• Urban community intervention to prevent Halloween arson - Detroit, Michigan, 1985-1996. (”By 1984, October 30 became known as “Devil’s Night” and had evolved to 3 consecutive nights of arson on October 29-31….”)

And some seem fairly random: ‘Halloween diarrhea’. An unexpected trick of sorbitol-containing candy.

For non-medical Halloween literature, here are some spooky stories.

Enjoy your Halloween and be safe: Don’t throw eggs, wear goggles, don’t accept any caramel apples, but don’t bother to X-ray your candy, and don’t eat too much candy, either. Don’t set things on fire, avoid crossing streets if you can, but if you must, look both ways before doing so, and keep your id in check.