Evolving Psychiatry

Riadh Abed discusses eating disorders, the various evolutionary pressures which may lie behind tendencies towards them, and mismatches in modern environments which encourage them. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Evolutionary Perspectives on Eating Disorders', authored by Riadh Abed and Agnes Ayton. It is chapter 11 in the book 'Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution...

Matthew Large tackles the difficulty of predicting suicide, the reasons evolution couldn't solve the problem of suicide, and what this means in psychiatric practice. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'On the Randomness of Suicide: An Evolutionary, Clinical Call to Transcend Suicide Risk Assessment', authored by Cas Soper, Pablo Ocejo and Matthew Large. It is chapter 9 in the book 'Evolutio...

Severi Luoto considers depression, its various forms and causes, and how we can subtype and understand them from an evolutionary perspective. He finishes on future connotations for prevention and treatment. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Evolutionary Perspectives on Depression' authored by Markus J. Rantala and Severi Luoto. It is chapter 8 in the book 'Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current...

Randolph Nesse's second interview covers anxiety of all kinds; why are humans so vulnerable to it, where it is helpful and harmful, and his experience treating patients with anxiety whilst informed by an evolutionary perspective.   This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Anxiety Disorders in Evolutionary Perspective', authored by Randolph Nesse. It is chapter 7 in the book 'Evolutionary Ps...

Randolph Nesse considers why humans are so vulnerable to mental disorders of all kinds. Evolution hasn't shaped us to be happy, or healthy, and there are all sorts of reasons why our minds veer into the states we call disorder. He also notes the usefulness of this perspective for clinicians and patients. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Why Do Mental Disorders Persist? Evolutionary Found...

Nikhil Chaudhary talks about hunter-gatherer life and aspects of ancestral and modern human societies which may differ and lead to mental disorder; and what lessons we may take away for prevention and intervention. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Hunter Gatherers, Mismatch and Mental Disorder', authored by Nikhil Chaudhary and Deniz Gul Salali. It is chapter 5 in the book 'Evolutionary...

Derek Tracy gives his second interview on hominin evolution, covering the aspects of homo sapiens which may have made us special in comparison to other human lineages, the evolutionary pressures which were most important, and how thinking about our evolutionary history helps him as a clinician.  This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Hominin evolution II: Sapiens, Masters of the Known Uni...

Derek Tracy gives his first interview on hominin evolution, covering the variety of human species which cohabited Earth over the past few hundred thousand years, why homo and homo sapiens may be special, and the complexity of human evolution we are just uncovering. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Hominin evolution I: the origins of Homo sapiens', authored by Derek Tracy. It is chapter 3...

Adam talks about the biopsychosocial model of medicine and how evolutionary psychiatry offers to improve upon it. Evolutionary approaches can inform the biological, psychological and social approaches to mental health, and bring together disparate areas of research under an overarching theory. This episode is based on a chapter titled 'The Biopsychosocial Model Advanced by Evolutionary Theory', au...

Riadh Abed introduces the field of evolutionary psychiatry. He makes the case for evolution being the basic science which should guide mental health research and talks about a couple of key concepts which evolutionary psychiatrists think about which are missing from current mainstream psychiatry. This episode is based on chapter 1, titled 'Introducing Evolutionary Psychiatry' of the book 'Evolutio...

Adam begins the Evolving Psychiatry podcast by introducing some key concepts from evolutionary psychiatry, talking a bit about the sorts of disorders which evolutionary psychiatry concerns itself with, and generally making the case for evolutionary psychiatry as a suitable new paradigm for psychiatry. Following this episode, there will be a series of twenty episodes on various topics in evolutiona...