Evolutionary Psychiatry

The hunt for evolutionary solutions to contemporary mental health problems.

by Emily Deans, M.D.

Coffee Happiness

Ever since the 15th century, people have been drinking that oh so stimulating bitter drink of choice, coffee. In the morning, there’s nothing quite like it to put a spring in your step. Read More

Heart disease wasn’t a huge killer in the United States until the end of the 1920s. Cigarette smoking really took off at the beginning of the 20th century, but did you know Crisco was released in 1911 and came into general use over the next 10 years for pie crusts and biscuits and everything baked? Read More

Nutritional Brain Bomb: Thiamine Deficiency

People maligning a modern diet tend to poke fingers at the the last 30 - 40 years. During this time obesity became a majority issue in the United States, and diabetes and metabolic syndrome afflicted many millions. However, from a nutritional perspective, diets 100 years ago weren’t that terrific either. Read More

Soda Begets Zombies

So soda consumption might not actually rot your brain, causing the uncontrollable desire to consume others. But calories devoid of micronutrients might have a behavioral consequence, and the sugary variety of soda might well be causing depression in those vulnerable to fructose malabsorption. Read More

Do Carbs Make You Crazy Part II

Previously, we discussed the question of Do Carbs Make You Crazy?, reviewed some literature to suggest that a bolus of sugar to a fasting person could certainly make some people crazy (or at least rather rotten-tempered), and yet MIT researchers suggest the same carby bolus will keep people sane with a nice happy squirt of serotonin. Read More

Sniffles and Suicide

It turns out that the link between suicide and seasons (particularly the springtime) is stronger in those with allergies. Read More

Do Carbs Keep You Sane?

In my last post, I explored evidence whether certain amounts of carbohydrates in the diet could affect behavior. We found that there certainly seems evidence that in folks vulnerable to relative hypoglycemia, a high carbohydrate snack could lead to a "sugar crash" and crankiness a couple of hours later. Some people even appear to be more violent in such circumstances. Read More

Do Carbs Make You Crazy?

Perhaps I should be more circumspect with my title. After all, there are several popular ideas out there: one that carbohydrates cause blood sugar spikes and crashes, leading to mood swings and general crankiness. The second is that sugar (that special fructose-filled form of carbohydrate) causes everything from ADHD to delinquency to psychosis to bipolar disorder. Read More

Brain Shrinkage and B Vitamins

Can a diet high in B vitamins prevent dementia? Read More

Does Obesity Change the Brain?

Are the brains of obese people different than the brains of the lean? And if there are changes, do they occur during the process of gaining weight? Do those changes go away of you lose weight again? In humans we don't know the answer to all of those questions, but we are starting to get some insights in studies of other species. Read More

ADHD and Obesity

If you were to guess, would you think that people with ADHD are more likely to be obese or skinny? Read More

Your Brain on Creatine

Are you a vegetarian or a vegan? Besides vitamin B12, depending upon what you eat and the supplements you take, you can find your diet somewhat low in zinc, long chain omega 3 fatty acids, and even some amino acids. One of these amino acids is called creatine, and the best source is meat. Read More

Could You Have a Lithium Deficiency?

When one mentions lithium, most people have a negative reaction. They think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, drooling, and lobotomies. And lithium in pharmacologic doses has some terrible downsides. However, lithium is, in fact, an essential trace mineral, present in many water systems with some very beneficial effects in the brain. Read More

Problems? I Have a NAC for That

In the chemical soup that comprises our bodies and biochemistry, oxidants and antioxidants are at constant war. A supplement called N-acetylcysteine (we'll shorten that to NAC) has the potential to make a huge difference in how we process toxins. Read More

Fish Oil, Mice, and Funny Cigarettes

A few months ago my stack of papers began to slide, and one from Nature Neuroscience ended up at the top of the pile. That always makes me flinch a bit, because Nature Neuroscience is rather advanced. In most papers every other word is an abbreviation for some sort of obscure brain chemical or neurologic process which makes for a lot of blinking and re-reading. Read More

Love and Opium

In psychiatry we have a a whole recipe book of diagnoses called the DSM IV-TR, soon to be replaced by the DSM-V. The original DSM was derived from an army handbook used by psychiatrists in WWII, much of which was taken from handbooks developed by German psychiatrists from their observations in the late 19th century. Read More

Psychosis and the Creative Advantage

The study of evolution is all about the persistence and passing on of certain genes. In psychiatry, an important question needs to be asked - how do partially inheritable diseases such as schizophrenia or autism, which in their worst forms can be detrimental to reproduction, persist in the gene pool? It doesn't make much sense at first glance. Read More

Nature and Nurture

"So what's more important, doc? Genes or how you were raised?" Read More

A History of Eating Disorders

Though anorexia nervosa was rare until the second half of the 20th century, it certainly existed beforehand. The first descriptions of anorexia nervosa in the Western world date from the 12th and 13th centuries, most famously Saint Catherine of Siena (1), who denied herself food as part of a spiritual denial of self. Read More

Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Psychiatry

In pursuing the pathology of psychiatry, I am a reductionist. All psychiatric illness (and I speculate that all of chronic Western disease is similar) has the same underlying pathology of inflammation, and treatment should begin with the same anti-inflamatory advice - a healthy diet absent procesed foods, exercise, learning healthy coping and stress amelioration, and good sleep. Read More

Fish Oil and Pregnancy

Whole, varied, real food, is a cornerstone of mental and physical health, and fish oil seems to play a big role in the health of our brains. Read More

Will Stress Injure Your Gut?

Believe it or not, the integrity and happiness of our gut is extremely important to the efficient and serene workings of our noggin. Much of the neural output of the brain is directed down the vagus nerve to the stomach and intestines, and there's a lot of back talk the other direction. Read More

Omega-3s and Suicide in the Military

Any regular reader of my blog will know that there is strong evidence that consumption of omega3 fatty acids, particularly fish oil, is really important for proper brain function. Read More

Fish Oil and Anxiety

Omega 3 fatty acids play a huge role in brain health and neurocommunication. This summer, a neat paper illuminating more connections between fish oil and mental health was published in my favorite journal, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity: Omega-3 supplementation lowers inflammation and anxiety in medical students: a randomized controlled trial. Read More

A Dietary Treatment for Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar disorder is a challenging illness with various clinical presentations. In "type one" people struggle with alternating symptoms of full blown mania, and most also have depressive episodes as well. In "type two," depression is the primary state, with the occasional rare bit of hypomania. Read More

Selenium and the Brain

Our modern, industrial diets can be full of calories but paradoxically low in some important minerals. Having enough of these minerals, such as magnesium, is vital to good physical and mental health. Selenium is another extremely important micronutrient that may be low in the diets of some modern populations, leading to chronic health problems. Read More

Could Alzheimer's Dementia Be Caused by a Virus?

Alzheimer's Disease is a slowly progressive illness of neuron loss leading to memory problems, cognitive impairment, and eventually death. Read More

Parkinson's, CoQ10, and Creatine

In my last post, Brain Energy, I discussed some of the evidence that Parkinson's Disease is possibly caused by defects in the energy efficiency of the mitochondria of susceptible (and poisoned via certain pesticides) individuals. That post covers a lot of ground, and it brings up some interesting questions. Read More

Brain Energy

Your brain uses a ton of energy. It's a small organ, maybe 2-5% of your total body weight, but it uses up to 20% of the energy you use in your body. That means for every plate of food, 1/5 of it goes to feed your noggin. Read More

Dementia and Other Stories of How Saturated Fat is Good for You

I believe the hierarchy of medicine explains everything. Cardiologists had the EKG as soon as some poor soul was convinced to dunk his feet in (dilute) battery acid. Read More