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Can depression, anxiety and somatization be understood as appeasement displays?
John S Price1, Russell Gardner, Mark Erickson
1Odintune Place, Plumpton, East Sussex BN7 3AN, UK. john.price@lycosmail.com
Background:
No satisfactory basis in normal function characterizes major depression and its co-morbid disorders. Yet these may represent maladaptive expression of adaptive communicational states exhibited normally in many species.
Methods:
We examined the signal value of depressive and anxious mood states, fatigue syndrome and somatoform disorders and found them to resemble appeasement or submission to conspecifics (members of a same species) as studied in other animals. Moreover, applying game theory formulations of conflict resolution and the triune brain theory of MacLean supported the hypothesis.
Limitations:
Direct experimental evidence must still test hypotheses that emanate from the presented framework.
Conclusions:
Implications for this approach include improved understanding and treatment of depression, improved research strategies, and a potential future pathogenesis-focused nosology.