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Journal Article 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 39-45 PubMed PMID: 12496734 Citation  Keywords:  Adaptation, Biological, Adaptation, Psychological, Biological Evolution, Humans, Mental Disorders:genetics, Models, Biological,.   

: A greater understanding of psychopathology will be found in the integration of genetic and evolutionary perspectives on adaptation and function. Evolutionary theory proposes that adaptive traits are reproduced more successfully than maladaptive ones. However, some traits, while contributing to fitness in the ancestral environment, may contribute to fitness no longer. This is known as mismatch theory. Evolutionarily informed research into various "pathologies" has yielded interesting results, some based on this theory. This paper serves to distinguish between genetic and evolutionary perspectives on psychopathology as well as to examine some recent research on the selective forces that may be implicated in psychopathy, anorexic behavior, and ADHD. We suggest that research into psychopathy in general would benefit from an evolutionary perspective and an examination of the assumptions behind past research....

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Journal Article 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 31-38 PubMed PMID: 12496733 Citation  Keywords:  Biological Evolution, Humans, Mental Disorders:epidemiology, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Stress, Psychological,.   

: In this paper, we discuss the concept of mental disorder from the perspective of Darwinian psychiatry. Using this perspective does not resolve all of the quandaries which philosophers of medicine face when trying to provide a general definition of disease. However, it does take an important step toward clarifying why current methods of psychiatric diagnosis are criticizable and how clinicians can improve the identification of true mental disorders. According to Darwinian psychiatry, the validity of the conventional criteria of psychiatric morbidity is dependent on their association with functional impairment. Suffering, statistical deviance, and physical lesion are frequent correlates of mental disorders but, in absence of dysfunctional consequences, none of these criteria is sufficient for considering a psychological or behavioral condition as a psychiatric disorder. The Darwinian concept of mental disorder builds from two basic ideas: (1) the capacity to achieve biological goals is the best single attribute that characterizes mental health; and (2), the assessment of functional capacities cannot be properly made without consideration of the environment in which the individual lives. These two ideas reflect a concept of mental disorder that is both functional and ecological. A correct application of evolutionary knowledge should not necessarily lead to the conclusion that therapeutic intervention should be limited to conditions that jeopardize biological adaptation. Because one of the basic aims of medicine is to alleviate human suffering, an understanding of the evolutionary foundations of the concept of mental disorder should translate into more effective ways for promoting individual and social well-being, not into the search for natural laws determining what is therapeutically right or wrong....

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Journal Article 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 23-29 PubMed PMID: 12496732 Citation  Keywords:  Behavior Control:psychology, Cognition, Competitive Behavior, Extramarital Relations:psychology, Fear:psychology, Humans, Jealousy, Reproductive Behavior, Sexual Behavior:psychology, Sexual Partners:psychology, Socioeconomic Factors,.   

: Long-term committed mating is a fundamental strategy in the human repertoire. Successful enactment of this strategy requires solving two related adaptive problems--fending off potential mate poachers and preventing a mates from defecting. Mate guarding adaptations evolved to solve these persistent problems. Those who failed in mate guarding risked suffering substantial reproductive costs ranging from genetic cuckoldry to reputational damage to the entire loss of a mate. Because the precise nature of the adaptive problems confronted differed historically for the sexes, men and women evolved corresponding differences in the underlying psychology of mate guarding. Men's mate guarding, relative to that of women's, is strongly triggered as a consequence of being mated to young and physically attractive women, being confronted by interested rivals who have superior economic resources or prospects, and having a mate who displays signs of sexual involvement with a rival. Women's mate guarding, relative to that of men's, is triggered as a consequence of being mated to men high in income and status striving, rivals who are more physically attractive, and having a partner who shows signs of emotional involvement with another woman. Behavioral output of mate guarding adaptations range from vigilance to violence....

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Journal Article 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 15-22 PubMed PMID: 12496731 Citation  Keywords:  Biological Evolution, Central Nervous System:physiology, Humans, Mental Processes, Nonverbal Communication,.   

: Research in human communication on an ethological basis is almost obsolete. The reasons for this are manifold and lie partially in methodological problems connected to the observation and description of behavior, as well as the nature of human behavior itself. In this chapter, we present a new, non-intrusive, technical approach to the analysis of human non-verbal behavior, which could help to solve the problem of categorization that plagues the traditional approaches. We utilize evolutionary theory to propose a new theory-driven methodological approach to the 'multi-unit multi-channel modulation' problem of human nonverbal communication. Within this concept, communication is seen as context-dependent (the meaning of a signal is adapted to the situation), as a multi-channel and a multi-unit process (a string of many events interrelated in 'communicative' space and time), and as related to the function it serves. Such an approach can be utilized to successfully bridge the gap between evolutionary psychological research, which focuses on social cognition adaptations, and human ethology, which describes every day behavior in an objective, systematic way....

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Biography 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 6-115 PubMed PMID: 12496727 Citation  Keywords:  Awards and Prizes, Behavioral Research, Czech Republic, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century, Humans, Neuroendocrinology:history,.   

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Journal Article 2002; 23(5-6): 459-482 PubMed PMID: 12500173 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Antioxidants:therapeutic use, Causality, Chronic Disease, Cognition Disorders:epidemiology, Comorbidity, Dental Amalgam:adverse effects, Dental Restoration, Permanent:adverse effects, Dentistry, Operative, Depression:epidem.   

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate treatment of patients suffering from chronic ill health with a multitude of symptoms associated with metal exposure from dental amalgam and other metal alloys.

SETTING AND DESIGN: We included 796 patients in a retrospective study using a questionnaire about symptom changes, changes in quality of life as a consequence of treatment and assessment of care taking.

METHODS: Treatment of the patients by removal of offending dental metals and concomitant antioxidant therapy was implemented according to the Uppsala model based on a close co-operation between physicians and dentists.

RESULTS: More than 70% of the responders, remaining after exclusion of those who had not begun or completed removal, reported substantial recovery and increased quality of life. Comparison with similar studies showed accordance of the main results. Plasma concentrations of mercury before and after treatment supported the metal exposure to be causative for the ill health.

MAIN FINDINGS: Treatment according to the Uppsala model proved to be adequate for more than 70% of the patients. Patients with a high probability to respond successfully to current therapy might be detected by symptom profiles before treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that metal exposure from dental amalgam can cause ill health in a susceptible part of the exposed population was supported. Further research is warranted to develop laboratory tests to support identification of the group of patients responding to current therapy as well as to find out causes of problems in the group with no or negative results....

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Clinical Trial 2002; 23(5-6): 455-458 PubMed PMID: 12500172 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Auditory Threshold, Delayed-Action Preparations:administration & dosage, Estradiol:administration & dosage, Female, Follicle Stimulating Hormone:blood, Follow-Up Studies, Hearing Loss:diagnosis, Hearing Tests, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Humans, M.   

BACKGROUND: Estrogens have not only direct and beneficial effect on relaxation of the arteries increasing the blood flow in the blood vessels, but also their level of secretion has considerable effect on synthesis of acetylcholine a neurotransmitter indispensable for appropriate functioning of the hearing organ. The aim of this study is analysis of the effect of hormones on the hearing organ in women who underwent surgical castration.

MATERIAL: The study included 40 females, aged between 32 55 years who had undergone an operative treatment mainly because of uterine myoma. A group of 50 women aged between 32 50 years with appropriate hormone level comprised the control group.

METHOD: Each woman investigated underwent the following examinations: gynaecological, otolaryngological and laboratory tests, such as: evaluation of levels of estradiol (E) and folliculin stimulating hormone (FSH). The assessment of hearing was carried out using tone and speech audiometry, tympanometry, test registration of auditory brain stem responses (ABR) and otoacoustic emissions (EOAE). The examinations mentioned above are performed in women as initial examinations before surgical treatment and as follow-up examinations 1, 3 and 12 months after the surgery.

RESULTS: The results presented in this paper include initial examinations and follow-ups 3 months after the surgical treatment taking into consideration the correlation with the results of laboratory tests and the results obtained in the control group....

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Journal Article 2002; 23(5-6): 452-454 PubMed PMID: 12500171 Citation  Keywords:  Administration, Intranasal, Animals, Capillaries:drug effects, Food Deprivation, Male, Oligopeptides:administration & dosage, Photoperiod, Pineal Gland:blood supply, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos:biosynthesis, Rats, Rats, Wistar, Stress, Physiological:phy.   

OBJECTIVES: The content of C-Fos protein was tested in rat pinealocytes in the norm and stress and in case of intranasal administration of Epitalon (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly), which regulated pineal secretion processes, presumably, via protooncogenes.

SETTING: Intact and osmotic-stress-exposed rats were used for the immunohistochemical detection of C-Fos protein. All animals were intranasally administered with Epitalon, the last infusion made in two hours before the biopsy. Simultaneously, light microscopy of the pineal parenchyma was performed in all groups of animals.

RESULTS: A slight but significant C-Fos increase was observed only in stress-exposed pinealocytes of rats after intranasal Epitalon infusions. C-Fos was irregularly distributed throughout pineal cells. In stress, the clusters of 5 10 cells containing C-Fos in their cytoplasm were detected. The dilation of capillaries and pericapillary space induced by an osmotic stress was partially reduced by the intranasal infusions of Epitalon.

CONCLUSIONS: Tetrapeptide Epitalon is synthesised on the basis of the amino acid composition of pineal peptide extract Epithalamin. Epitalon modulates pineal secretion only under a stress impact but never in the norm. It prevents osmotic-stress-induced pathologic changes in the pineal parenchyma structure. Besides, the physiological activity of Epitalon seems to be mediated by the activation of protooncogenes in pinealocytes....

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