Halloween’s roots trace back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated over 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the UK and northern France.
The Celts believed that on the night of October 31 the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred and thought the spirits of the dead could visit the earth.
To ward off evil spirits people would light bonfires and wear costumes.
Halloween has impacted upon contemporary medicine through its connection to historical herbal remedies and associated horror tropes.
While many of the ‘potions’ and ointments used by witches had no real effectiveness, some modern treatments used by facultative medicine have their origin in the cabinets of these women.
Historically, herbs like ‘deadly nightshade’ were linked to ‘witches’ brews’ and modern medicine has borrowed from them.
‘Deadly nightshade” contains atropine which is a drug commonly used in the NHS to treat a number of conditions, including slow heart rates, to dry up airway secretions by reducing the production of saliva and mucus, to widen or dilate the pupils to facilitate an eye exam and to treat poisoning by carbamate insecticides, mushrooms and organophosphorus-based nerve agents.
Additionally, willow bark, used to treat inflammation, contains salicin which later gave rise to salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin.
Furthermore, purple foxglove was a base ingredient in potions used to treat a condition historically called ‘dropsy’, a term describing swelling of the legs which today is referred to as ‘oedema’ and commonly seen in patients with heart disease.
From this plant originated drugs such as digoxin and digitoxin which are used in modern-day treatment of heart failure and irregular electrical abnormalities of the heart rhythm like atrial fibrillation.
The historical medical practice of bloodletting, used to treat various ailments, is linked to Halloween through the fear of blood and needles associated with some costumes and horror tropes.
Practices of bloodletting were based on outdated theories of humors.
In ancient times the humors were the four substances believed to make up the body, namely blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.
Ancient beliefs were the four humors needed to be in balance for a person to be healthy and bloodletting was a practice used to remove excess or ‘impure’ blood to cure illness.
When the humors were out of balance it was believed to cause sickness and the treatment of bloodletting aimed to restore that balance.
Over time the procedure of bloodletting was eventually abandoned due to the risks posed such as anaemia, low blood pressure and infection.
The plague doctor costume, which is the iconic bird beak-like mask, is frequently used as a Halloween costume.
Historically, this was worn by plague doctors who treated victims of the bubonic plague, most famously during the Black Death in 17th-century Europe.
The mask was believed to protect them from ‘miasma’ or ‘bad air’ and was filled with aromatic herbs to filter out the smell.
While their methods were based on outdated miasma theory, their role was crucial in public health measures like quarantine and observation during epidemics.
Historically, possession and hauntings by ghosts and spirits were often viewed as the primary explanation for mental and physical ailments that could not be explained by ancient medical knowledge.
For example, in ancient Mesopotamia, which is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq, texts from as far back as 2000 BCE describe conditions similar to psychosis, anxiety and depression as the work of angry gods or spirits.
A condition known as ‘hand of ghost’, believed to be caused by a spirit, was associated with symptoms like paranoia and hallucinations.
Additionally, across various cultures in south-east Asia ghosts and spirits have been considered both a cause of illness and a source of healing.
Beliefs that supernatural forces cause mental illness as a result of disrespect for spirits or gods are still held in some cultures.
Modern medicine now offers biological and psychological explanations for many of these conditions though cultural beliefs about spiritual causes for illness continue to influence healthcare worldwide.
More recently Halloween has influenced medicine through its effect on diagnostic trends.
For example, a study found a significant increase in new diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among children visiting doctors on Halloween compared to other days.
This suggests that factors like fear and excitement, a high sugar intake consumed on Halloween and even assessment subjectivity on a festival that emphasises hyperactivity may influence the diagnosis of the disorder.
Many people within our community will be looking forward to going trick-or-treating this Halloween.
This can make some people, especially those with phobias, feel scared due to factors like costumes, masks and the unpredictability of strangers knocking on doors.
For people with specific fears like coulrophobia, which is a fear of clowns, or samhainophobia, a fear of Halloween, it can range from mild anxiety to a severe panic attack.
To help it’s recommended to only knock on doors with visible decorations that show an invitation to participate and recognise that not everyone enjoys Halloween.
Some may be genuinely frightened by trick-or-treaters knocking on their door.
Let’s all enjoy a safe Halloween.
Our columnist Dr Jason Seewoodhary is a former Worcestershire GP.