In light of the increasing threat of large-scale massacres such as terrorism against non-combatants (civilians), more attention is warranted not only to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but also to acute sociogenic pseudoneurological ("conversion") symptoms, especially epidemic sociogenic symptoms. We posit that conversion disorders are etiologically related to specific evolutionary pressures (inescapable threats to life) in the late stage of the human environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). Bracha et al. have recently argued that from the neuroevolutionary perspective, medically unexplained efferent vasovagal syncope and medically unexplained craniofacial musculoskeletal pain in young otherwise healthy individuals, may be taxonomized as stress and fear-circuitry disorders. In the present article, we extend neuroevolutionary perspectives to acute pseudoneurological sociogenic ("conversive") symptoms: psychogenic non-epileptic attacks ("pseudoseizures"), epidemic sociogenic disorders (DSM-IV-TR Epidemic "Hysteria"), conversive motor deficits (pseudo-paralysis and pseudo-cerebellar symptoms), and psychogenic blindness. We hypothesize that these perplexing pseudoneurological stress-triggered symptoms, which constitute psychopathology in extant humans, are traceable to allele-variant polymorphisms which spread during the Neolithic EEA. During Neolithic warfare, conversive symptoms may have increased the survival odds for some non-combatants by visually (i.e., "non-verbally") signaling to predatory conspecifics that one does not present a danger. This is consistent with the age and sex pattern of conversive disorders. Testable and falsifiable predictions are presented; e.g., at the genome-transcriptome interface, one of the major oligogenic loci involved in conversive spectrum disorders may carry a developmentally sensitive allele in a stable polymorphism (balanced polymorphism) in which the gene expression mechanism is gradually suppressed by pleiotropic androgens especially dehydroxyepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S). Taxonomic implications for the much-needed rapprochement between the forthcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) are discussed.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2005.05.013 | DOI Listing |
J Pers Med
July 2024
School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M14 4PX, UK.
Long COVID is a common sequela of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Data from numerous scientific studies indicate that long COVID involves a complex interaction between pathophysiological processes. Long COVID may involve the development of new diagnosable health conditions and exacerbation of pre-existing health conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
February 2015
Centre for Communicable Diseases (CCD), icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh ; Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Background: In 2010, an acute illness outbreak was reported in school students eating high-energy biscuits supplied by the school feeding programme in northwest Bangladesh. We investigated this outbreak to describe the illness in terms of person, place and time, develop the timeline of events, and determine the cause and community perceptions regarding the outbreak.
Methods: We defined case-patients as students from affected schools reporting any two symptoms including abdominal pain, heartburn, bitter taste, and headache after eating biscuits on the day of illness.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
July 2006
Department of Veterans Affairs, Pacific Islands Health Care System, and Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96813-2830, USA.
The DSM-III, DSM-IV, DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10 have judiciously minimized discussion of etiologies to distance clinical psychiatry from Freudian psychoanalysis. With this goal mostly achieved, discussion of etiological factors should be reintroduced into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V). A research agenda for the DSM-V advocated the "development of a pathophysiologically based classification system".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Affect Disord
October 2005
National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Department of Veterans Affairs, Pacific Islands Health Care System, Spark M. Matsunaga Medical Center, 1132 Bishop St. #307, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
In light of the increasing threat of large-scale massacres such as terrorism against non-combatants (civilians), more attention is warranted not only to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but also to acute sociogenic pseudoneurological ("conversion") symptoms, especially epidemic sociogenic symptoms. We posit that conversion disorders are etiologically related to specific evolutionary pressures (inescapable threats to life) in the late stage of the human environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). Bracha et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMil Med
December 2001
Radiation Pathophysiology and Toxicology Department, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, 8901 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20889-5603, USA.
The general public, the mass media, and many government officials believe that the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) will inevitably lead to mass panic and/or mass hysteria. However, studies of disasters and wars show that disorganized flight in the presence of a real or perceived danger (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!