Evolving Psychiatry

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 ga...

25 Nov 20241h 11min

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 "Evolu...

17 Nov 202445min

Social media, video games, gambling... why are some activities so rewarding that we become addicted? In this episode, we discuss the reason humans are susceptible to 'behavioural addictions', referenc...

12 Nov 20241h 9min

Depression is often linked to adversity: why would it reliably appear in such conditions? Ed Hagen has spent over forty years wondering about this question, and is one of the world's foremost research...

3 Nov 20241h 5min

The past is invisible - how are we supposed to know the truth behind our evolutionary history? In this episode, Adam Hunt discusses the complexity of the reality behind our evolution, and the limits o...

28 Okt 202454min

In the Amazon rainforest, how would mental illness manifest? What is life in non-industrialised societies like? Camila Scaff discusses social life, loneliness, and her journey investigating mental hea...

22 Okt 20241h 7min

Why does severe trauma lead to PTSD? This episode considers work on combat stress and PTSD symptoms in Turkana warriors of North West Kenya, and how it relates to evolutionary explanations of PTSD sym...

15 Okt 20241h 4min

Evolutionary explanations of depression could change how we perceive the condition, and how depressed people perceive themselves. In this episode, clinical psychologist Hans Schroder discusses his exp...

6 Okt 20241h