Origins and Mechanisms in the Development of Major Mental Disorders: A Clinical Approach

Abstract

This paper considers the following collective significance of the shared, clinical characteristics of the major mental disorders (MMDs), their co-morbidities, overlaps and pharmacological responses with the following conclusions: 1) These disorders have a common, initial, neurodevelopmental origin. 2) They can occur probabilistically on susceptible individuals, on account of pre-existing, extreme, temperamental variances-signifying underlying structural variance. 3) Each of these syndromes can be considered the expression of disturbances in the overall, common, operating mode of brain function which normally ensures the synchrony, coordination, elegance and subtlety in the expression of all the brain's higher faculties. 4) Lastly, this function is a complex, emergent phenomenon based on the individual's temperamental/structural underlying makeup, switching intermittently from a normal phase to a pathologically, ordered one-the latter phase expressing itself with symptoms made up of expressing either/or, antithetical substitutes for each of the MMDs-similar to the fluctuations found in patient's with Parkinson's disease.

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

“…Promising answers as to how this happens may be gleaned from recent findings from molecular genetics [ 3 - 9 ], evolutionary biology [ 9 - 12 ] and clinical observations [ 13 - 15 ]. Significantly, these findings when considered together, point to mechanisms for their development [ 16 ]:…”