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by Marc Siegel, 246 pp, $24.95, 0-471-67869-4, Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons, 2005.

JAMA. 2005;294:2503-2504.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Fear is a basic human emotion, shared with nonhumans. But unlike animals, humans can experience damaging, learned fear as well as healthy, circumscribed fear. In False Alarm, Marc Siegel, a New York City internist and print-media columnist, shares his experience during the 4 years following September 11, 2001, and thoughts and advice about the pervasive epidemic of fear during that time.

Siegel takes readers through the September 11 attacks; the anthrax scare; and fears about smallpox and gas bioterrorism agents, severe adult respiratory syndrome (SARS), and mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE]). He contends that, although a potential threat to human wellness existed in each instance, perceptions of the threat were exaggerated and excessively personal.

Siegel questions the actions of governmental agencies, politicians, and the media. For instance, he asserts that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "attached itself to the media megaphone and made us afraid . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Saty Satya-Murti, MD, Reviewer
Robert J. Dole Medical Center
Wichita, Kan
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City
smurti@cox.net

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