Evolutionary psychiatry is a branch of medical science concerning mental disorders, and also a multidisciplinary research field with close relation to psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and ethology. Although evolutionary psychiatry is a promising area for further psychiatric studies, it is still in its infancy. Thus, there are no certain research methods using evolutionary approaches toward mental diseases. It is still at the level of adopting and applying the research methods of the aforementioned adjacent fields. We aim to investigate a variety of research methods proposed to date and then compare them, which will provide a glimpse of the future of evolutionary psychiatry in the upcoming era.
Anthropology ; Biology ; Ethology ; Mental Disorders ; Neurosciences ; Psychology

Evolutionary anthropology is the multidisciplinary field of social and natural sciences regarding the physiology and behavior of Homo Sapiens, and the relationship between human and other Hominoids like primates or ancient human species. Evolutionary anthropological approach toward psychiatry is a promising way to resolve the inter-disciplinary conflicts between different fields of study of the human mind. Evolutionary psychiatry is the specialized part of applied biologic anthropology and clinical psychiatry dealing with the biological causes of mental disorders, the impacts of cultural change toward the evolution of the human mind by studying the ancestry of mankind. I attempted to overview the history of evolutionary anthropology or neuroanthropology related to brain and mind, and the possibility of evolutionary psychiatry by showing the progress of academic and social issues regarding the ultimate causes of several mental illnesses.
Anthropology ; Brain ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Natural Science Disciplines ; Physiology ; Primates

Clozapine is a well-known antipsychotic which causes hematologic adverse effects, specifically neutropenia and agranulocytosis (1-3% of patients). However, reports on blood dyscrasias like anemia and thrombocytosis after clozapine treatment are extremely rare. In some cases re-challenge of clozapine could lead to hematopoietic abnormality related to thrombocytopenia or thrombocytosis, which may be a result of an immune reaction. This case report suggests that clinicians should monitor platelet count after re-treatment with clozapine.
Agranulocytosis ; Anemia* ; Clozapine ; Neutropenia ; Platelet Count ; Thrombocytopenia ; Thrombocytosis*

Objective: Excessive activation of defence modules leads to some dysfunctional outcomes, which can be broadly classified to defence activation disorders. Defence activation disorders have high mortality, low fertility, high prevalence and high heritability. In this study, agent-based simulation model is formulated for solving this evolutionary paradox. Methods: The emotional system is considered as a superordinate cognitive module for grasping the average resource amount and the average diminishing returns of resources, based on the Marginal Value Theorem. Under the assumption, the evolutionary ecological model was proposed and analysed. Results: Individuals utilising suboptimal strategies can be stably maintained in agent-based evolutionary simulation environments. Individuals were adapted to have different d-values according to the local niche. The simulation runs stably within the calibrated range of the variables for a long time. Agents establish locally optimal strategies based on their given d-values, and the relative proportion of subpopulation maintained stably in the heterogeneous habitat with the resource gradient. Conclusion This study verifies the evolutionary mechanism of defence activation disorders in computer-simulated environments by using agent-based modelling with the Marginal Value Theorem. Balancing selection appears to be a plausible evolutionary mechanism that makes the suboptimal levels of defence activation the evolutionarily stable strategies.

Like the body of Hominin, mind is the result of natural selection. Therefore, an evolutionary approach in the biological aspects is essential for an intrinsic understanding of mental disorders. However, the evolutionary medical approach to mental disordershas not been well researched because evolutionary psychiatry is not widely accepted, and the conceptual paradigm has not been unified. Nevertheless, some evolutionary hypotheses about some mental disorders have been proposed, including the following: 1) thesimple disease argument that mental disorder is a mere disease, 2) the genomic lag hypothesis that current genes are incompatible with evolutionary environmental changes, 3) the developmental mismatch hypothesis that brain development cannot reflect entire-information of surrounding environment, 4) the trade-off hypothesis that costs are offset by other adaptive benefits, 5) the by-product hypothesis that mental disorders are inevitable outcome of evolutionary design, 6) the cliff-edge model that the encephalizationin the Hominin caused mental disorders, 7) the inclusive fitness hypothesis that costs of individual are compensated by benefits of kinship, 8) the antagonistic polymorphism hypothesis that differential costs and benefits according to sex or age cause ofpolymorphic psychological traits 9) the heterozygote advantage hypothesis that the heterozygous genotypes have higher relative fitness, so they can persist even though homozygous genotypes cause mental disorders, and 10) a genomic imprinting hypothesis that conflicts between maternal genes and paternal genes cause mental disorders. I will summarize and compare the evolutionary hypotheses of mental disorders and present the lim itations of each hypothesis.
Brain ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Genomic Imprinting ; Genotype ; Heterozygote ; Hominidae ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Selection, Genetic

The Motor Vessel Sewol accident was a horrible accident, and it had complex ripple effects in various areas such as politics, economy, and culture. In particular, the psychological impact of each individual in Korean society was great, and various explanations for the causes of such psychological mass trauma would be possible. One of these important causes is the historical memory about common cultural custom. Therefore, the historical and cultural memory of the school trips shared by members of Korean society may be one of the causes of the psychological trauma. This paper aims to explain the cultural and social functions of school trips in East Asian societies from a historical point of view. In addition, we will also analyse the reasons why shared cultural memories contributed to the formation of collective trauma of the accident from a cultural, anthropological and psychiatric point of view.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Humans ; Memory ; Politics ; Psychological Trauma ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

Psychiatric disorder as dysfunctional behavioural syndrome is a paradoxical phenomenon that is difficult to explain evolutionarily because moderate prevalence rate, high heritability and relatively low fitness are shown. Several evolutionary genetic models have been proposed to address this paradox. In this paper, I explain each model by dividing it into selective neutrality, mutation-selection balance, and balancing selection hypothesis, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of them. In addition, the feasibility of niche specialization and frequency dependent selection as the plausible explanation about the central paradox is briefly discussed.
Mental Disorders ; Models, Genetic ; Prevalence

The behavioural patterns of individuals in the same species are very diverse. The phenomenon in which different behavioural phenotypes are maintained in the same species for long time can be explained by niche specialization or frequency dependent selection, but it has not been proven yet. Especially, the high prevalence of mental illnesses as extreme behaviour patterns is one of the challenges of evolutionary psychology. From an evolutionary point of view, several frameworks for studying various patterns of behaviours or psychopathologies may be proposed. In this paper, I briefly explain animal models, personality factor models, DSM-IV multiaxial models, FSD models, and RDoC models, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages, focusing on the evolutionary approach to behavioural variation among individuals.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Models, Animal ; Phenotype ; Prevalence ; Psychology ; Psychopathology

The impact of maternal mental health on parenting and infant development is significant. Infants of mothers who have experienced perinatal mental health problems have genetic risks as well as risks in establishing a stable mother-child relationship, which interferes with the infants’ emotional, cognitive, and social development. Biological, psychological, and inpatient treatments, such as mother-baby unit at the highest risk after childbirth, have been attempted to minimize the negative consequences of perinatal mental disorder. Mother-child psychotherapy is also helpful in improving a mother-child relationship and strengthening the parenting ability.

Objectives: In regard to the social competition hypothesis, depression is viewed as an involuntary defeat strategy. A previous study has demonstrated that adaptation in microenvironments can result in a wide range of behavioural patterns including defense activation disorders. Using a simulation model with evolutionary ecological agents, we explore how the fitness of various defence activation traits has changed over time in different environments with high and low social mobility. Methods: The Evolutionary Ecological Model of Defence Activation Disorder, which is based on the Marginal Value Theorem, was used to examine changes in relative fitness for individuals with defensive activation disorders after adjusting for social mobility. Results: Our study examined the effects of social mobility on fitness by varying the d-values, a measure of depression in the model.With a decline in social mobility, the level of fitness of individuals with high levels of defense activation decreased. We gained insight into the evolutionary influence of varying levels of social mobility on individuals’ degrees of depression. In the context of a highly stratified society, the results support a mismatch hypothesis which states that high levels of defence are detrimental. Conclusions Despite the fact that niche specialization in habitats composed of multiple microenvironments can result in diverse levels of defensive activation being evolutionary strategies for stability, decreased social mobility may lead to a decrease in fitness of individuals with highly activated defence modules. There may be a reason behind the epidemic of depression in modern society.