Depression as a survival tool? Some new treatments assume so. (biopsychiatry.com)

IN the fall of 2005, psychiatrist J. Anderson Thomson Jr. was treating an 18-year-old college freshman whom he describes as “intensely depressed, feeling suicidal and doing self-cutting.”

A few years before, Thomson says, he would have interpreted her depression as anger turned inward. But instead he decided that her symptoms might be a way of signaling her unhappiness to people close to her [...]

[...] Some evolutionary psychologists emphasize the benefits of what we label as disorders. For example, Edward H. Hagen, a research scientist at Humboldt University in Berlin, with whom Thomson has collaborated, has argued that depression, suicide attempts and deliberate self-harm are rational bargaining tactics to manipulate others into providing support they might otherwise withhold.

Stephen S. Ilardi, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, suggests that depression results from a “mismatch” between human beings adapted for hunter-gatherer societies and the contemporary world. His therapy — which he calls “therapeutic lifestyle change” — emphasizes behavioral remedies, including getting more sleep, consuming more omega-3 fatty acids and increasing social interaction.

A third school of evolutionary thought sees mental disorders as the result of an accumulation of harmful genetic mutations — flaws in the system.

From my personal experiences, I feel more inclined towards the first. We could argue that the second school could provide a broader framework where we can insert the first model. The third one seems reductionist (biologicist).

A post worth reading. Here’s the link to the full article.

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