%A Dr. H. Stefan Bracha
%A Dr. Jack D. Maser
%J CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
%T Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Context of Human Brain Evolution:A Role for Theory in DSM-V?
%X The ?hypervigilance, escape, struggle, tonic immobility?
evolutionarily hardwired acute peritraumatic response
sequence is important for clinicians to understand. Our
commentary supplements the useful article on human
tonic immobility (TI) by Marx, Forsyth, Gallup, Fus? and Lexington (2008). A hallmark sign of TI is peritraumatic
tachycardia, which others have documented as a
major risk factor for subsequent posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). TI is evolutionarily highly conserved
(uniform across species) and underscores the need for
DSM-V planners to consider the inclusion of evolution
theory in the reconceptualization of anxiety and PTSD.
We discuss the relevance of evolution theory to the
DSM-V reconceptualization of acute dissociativeconversion
symptoms and of epidemic sociogenic disorder(epidemic ?hysteria?). Both are especially in need of attention in light of the increasing threat of terrorism
against civilians. We provide other pertinent examples.
Finally, evolution theory is not ideology driven (and
makes testable predictions regarding etiology in ?both
directions?). For instance, it predicted the unexpected
finding that some disorders conceptualized in DSM-IV-TR as innate phobias are conditioned responses and thus better conceptualized as mild forms of PTSD. Evolution
theory may offer a conceptual framework in
DSM-V both for treatment and for research on psychopathology.

%D 2008
%K DSM-V, PTSD, anxiety, tonic immobility, dissociative-conversive symptoms, psychiatry and diagnosis
%L cogprints6345

<script src='https://archive-bar.soton.ac.uk/archive-bar.js'></script>
<script src='https://archive-bar.soton.ac.uk/google-analytics.js'></script>