An Emerging Natural History in the Development, Mechanisms and Worldwide Prevalence of Major Mental Disorders

Abstract

Conciliating recent findings from molecular genetics, evolutionary biology, and clinical observations together point to new understandings regarding the mechanism, development and the persistent worldwide prevalence of major mental disorders (MMDs), which should be considered the result of an evolutionary downside trade off. Temperamental/trait variability, by facilitating choices for individual and group responses, confers robustness flexibility and resilience crucial to success of our species. Extreme temperamental variants, originating evolutionarily from the asocial aspect of human nature, also constitute the premorbid personality of the disorders. The latter create vulnerable individuals out of whom some will develop MMDs but at much higher rate to that of the general population. Significantly, similar temperamental “lopsidedness” enables many of these vulnerable individuals, if intelligent, tenacious, and curious, to be creative and contribute to our survival while some may also develop MMDs. All have a common neural-developmental origin and share characteristics in their clinical expression and pharmacological responses also expressed as mixed syndromes or alternating ones over time. Over-pruning of synaptic neurons may be considered the trigger of such occurrences or conversely, the failure to prevent them in spite of it. The symptoms of the major mental disorders are made up of antithetical substitutes as an expression of a disturbed over-all synchronizing property of brain function for all higher faculties previously unconsidered in their modeling. The concomitant presence of psychosis is a generic common occurrence.

Some Thoughts Regarding the Narrative of the Current Nosological Schema and their Ramifications for Major Mental Disorders with a Focus on Schizophrenia

“…Considering such a narrative encompassing clinical phenomena shared by all the major mental disorders will be a more fruitful guide for delineating the mechanisms of their psychopathology. This Open Journal of Psychiatry outline is a review on the topic based at length in a previously, published article titled "An Emerging Natural History in the Development, Mechanisms and Worldwide Prevalence of Major Mental Disorders" [1].…”