Evolving Psychiatry

Annie Swanepoel discusses why ADHD and autism may be unusually problematic in the modern world, the evolutionary reasons for them, and how an evolutionary perspective has affected her treatment of chi...

20 Sep 202212min

Annie Swanepoel discusses trauma and its effects through an evolutionary lens: when trauma is a useful signal, why it is exasperated in certain modern situations and what this means for understanding,...

19 Sep 202213min

Robin Dunbar discusses alcohol, its history with humans and primates, why it's so useful for bonding, and how novel circumstances have pushed it into being a drug of abuse. This episode is based on a...

18 Sep 202214min

Paul St-John Smith talks about substance abuse, the propensity for humans to seek out substances, and how an evolutionary perspective can help us understand substance use and abuse. This episode is ...

17 Sep 202225min

Riadh Abed discusses eating disorders, the various evolutionary pressures which may lie behind tendencies towards them, and mismatches in modern environments which encourage them. This episode is base...

16 Sep 202218min

Matthew Large tackles the difficulty of predicting suicide, the reasons evolution couldn't solve the problem of suicide, and what this means in psychiatric practice. This episode is based on a chapter...

16 Sep 202215min

Severi Luoto considers depression, its various forms and causes, and how we can subtype and understand them from an evolutionary perspective. He finishes on future connotations for prevention and trea...

14 Sep 202214min

Randolph Nesse's second interview covers anxiety of all kinds; why are humans so vulnerable to it, where it is helpful and harmful, and his experience treating patients with anxiety whilst informed by...

13 Sep 202216min