Journal of the Korean Society of Biological Psychiatry  2019;26(2):33-38

Evolutionary Genetic Models of Mental Disorders

Hanson PARK 1

Affiliations

+expand

Keywords

Evolutionary psychiatry; Mental disorder; Balancing selection

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

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.