Is depression evolutionary?
by CarolineIt is genetic, so I could see this . . .
The research begins with the question: Why isn’t depression more rare? Maybe, like obesity, it afflicts us because modern conditions are so different than the ones in which we evolved. But no, apparently depression is common to all cultures, even small scale, isolated ones.
Andrew Sullivan guest blogger Hanna Rosin links to a Scientific American article in the above-quoted post on depression.
The possible genetic motivations for depression could be an emphasis on analytical thinking, the article says, of scrutinizing a problem on a micro level. I guess the problems start when you fractalize a problem until its minutiae paralyze you. Also: In what way could loss of appetite or energy be considered a genetic advantage?
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