Evolving Psychiatry – Details, episodes & analysis

Humans rely on each other. Mothers, in particular, need help raising children. In this episode we discuss Professor Alessandra Cassar's work seeking to understand how maternal depression relates to gaining social support. We also touch on where evolutionary perspectives may be useful in structuring society more widely. Alessandra Cassar is a professor of economics at the University of San Francisco. Through laboratory and field experiments across the world, her studies focus on the contributions of evolutionary processes to shaping human behavior. Her current research concentrates on the under-studied areas of female competitiveness; the consequences of conflict and disaster victimization for altruism, trust, religiosity, risk, and time preferences; and the role of social networks for economic outcomes.

Why have humans evolved tendencies for substance addiction? In this episode, Adam and Tom discuss the evolutionary explanations for these vulnerabilities. The discussion is based on their paper "Evolutionary perspectives on substance and behavioural addictions: Distinct and shared pathways to understanding, prediction and prevention". Dr Tom Carpenter is a resident doctor in Psychiatry based in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh after initially studying Human Sciences at the University of Oxford, completing a Master’s degree in research in Animal Behaviour at Newcastle University, and having a brief career in marketing. He has worked in a specialist addictions service in Glasgow and currently works in an early intervention in psychosis service. He has current research and engagement projects around the usefulness and impact of evolutionary psychoeducation for mental health clinicians.

Jerome Wakefield is a professor of social work in the Silver School of Social Work at New York University. Much of his work is in the history and philosophy of psychiatry. He is renowned in evolutionary psychiatry for his "harmful dysfunction" analysis of mental illness.

We discuss our evolved human nature and how we can designate 'disorder' given our understanding of biological design, the pathologisation of normal sadness as depression, and the worth of evolutionary psychiatry to society.

You can follow Adam Hunt on X/Twitter @RealAdamHunt

Tom Carpenter is a trainee psychiatrist in the West of Scotland. He is the trainee representative on the executive committee of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

In this episode, we discuss Tom's intellectual history, the place of psychiatry in society and how we judge people, and how evolutionary thinking may affect psychiatry going forward.

You can follow Adam Hunt on Twitter/X at @RealAdamHunt

Gurjot Brar is a trainee psychiatrist in Ireland. He runs the 'Evolution and Psychiatry' substack, a monthly collaborative 'journal' dedicated to discussing and exploring how evolutionary science can inform our understanding of psychiatry.

In this episode we discuss how Gurjot got introduced to evolutionary psychiatry and the major points he finds exciting about the field.

You can follow him on Twitter/X at @gurjotbrarmd

You can follow Adam on Twitter/X at @RealAdamHunt

Professor Henry O’Connell is a Consultant Psychiatrist working in Portlaoise, Ireland and Associate Clinical Professor with the School of Medicine at the University of Limerick. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin in 1997, he obtained his Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2001. He holds Masters and doctorate level postgraduate qualifications in medical education and delirium research. In this episode, we discuss Henry's experience as a medical educator, the most important principles and takeaways of evolutionary psychiatry, and its clinical relevance. You can follow Henry on Twitter/X at @henrypoconnell You can follow Adam on Twitter/X at @realadamhunt

Kristen Syme is an Assistant Professor of Suicide and Suicide Prevention at Leiden University. She is an evolutionary anthropologist who works on understanding suicidal and self harm behavior from an evolutionary perspective, and works with the Chon Chuuk of Micronesia and the USA. In this episode Kristen and Adam discuss cases of adolescent-parent conflict, the outcomes and evolutionary models which help us understand such conflicts. You can follow Kristen on Twitter @KristenSyme You can follow Adam on Twitter @RealAdamHunt

Kristen Syme is an Assistant Professor of Suicide and Suicide Prevention at Leiden University. She is an evolutionary anthropologist who works on understanding suicidal and self harm behavior from an evolutionary perspective, and works with the Chon Chuuk of Micronesia and the USA.

In this episode Kristen and Adam discuss the bargaining model of suicidal behavior and depression, especially regarding adolescent-parent conflict.

You can follow Kristen on Twitter @KristenSyme

You can follow Adam on Twitter @RealAdamHunt

Season 2 of the Evolving Psychiatry Podcast begins with a brief comment on what's to come in the season, as Adam interviews psychiatrists and researchers who work in evolutionary psychiatry. Adam then discuss a fundamental theoretical advantage of evolutionary psychiatry and medicine, which is its ability to define health and disorder objectively.

Adam Hunt is a PhD student researching evolutionary psychiatry in the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich. You can follow Adam Hunt on Twitter @RealAdamHunt

Alfonso Troisi discusses how an evolutionary perspective should inform our measurement of clinical outcomes, the potential of evolutionary thinking to advance care, and his experience treating patients as an evolutionary psychiatrist. 

This episode is based on a chapter titled 'Evolutionary Thinking and Clinical Care of Psychiatric Patients', authored by Alfonso Troisi. It is chapter 20 in the book 'Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health', published by Cambridge University Press.

The book is available for purchase here via CUP or on Amazon.

You can follow Adam Hunt on Twitter @RealAdamHunt