Evolutionary Psychiatry

Nesse, RM (1984) An evolutionary perspective on psychiatry. (most ideas are here including 4 questions, panic, mood, obesity, anorexia and premature ejaculation)

Nesse, R. M. (2019, March). The Puzzle of the Unbalanced Mind. Psychology Today.

Nesse, Randolph M. (2017). Evolutionary foundations for psychiatric research and practice. In B. J. Sadock, V. A. Sadock, & P. Ruiz (Eds.), Kaplan & Sadock’s comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (Tenth edition, pp. 769–780). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.

Explaining depression: Neuroscience is not enough, evolution is essential, 2009

Why has natural selection left us so vulnerable to anxiety and mood disorders? Can J Psychiatry, 2011

Evolutionary psychology and mental health. 2015

Nesse RM: What Darwinian medicine offers psychiatry. Evolutionary Medicine, W. R. Trevathan, J. J. McKenna and E. O. Smith. New York, Oxford University Press, 1999.

A general ''Theory of Emotion'' is neither necessary nor possible, Emotion Review, 2014

Nesse Anorexia: A Perverse Effect of Trying to Control the Starvation Response BBS 2017

Nesse, Finch, Nunn: Evolution, Sleep, & Alzheimer's Disease, 2017

Nesse, RM: Evolutionary Psychology and Mental Health. Pages 903-937 in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Edited by David Buss, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken , NJ, 2005. Best general overview. See the 2015 revision.

Nesse RM, Stein DJ. Towards a genuinely medical model for psychiatric nosology. BMC Med;10(1):5, 2012.

Nesse RM. An evolutionary perspective on panic disorder and agoraphobia. Ethology and Sociobiology;8:73S-83S, 1987.

Nesse RM: An evolutionary perspective on psychiatry. Comprehensive Psychiatry 25:575-580, 1984 An early overview of what evolutionary biology provides for psychiatry.

Nesse RM: What good is feeling bad? The evolutionary utility of psychic pain. The Sciences, 30-37, Nov./Dec. 1991.

An informal short overview of how negative feelings can be useful, with lovely illustrations

Articles on specific disorders

Nesse, RM: Evolutionary explanations for mood and mood disorders. The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Mood Disorders, edited by Daniel J. Stein , David J. Kupfer, and Alan F. Schatzberg, American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington DC, pp. 159-175, 2006.

This textbook chapter is the best starting place for clinical professionals who treat depression

Nesse RM. Explaining depression: Neuroscience is not enough, evolution is essential. In: Pariente CM, Nesse RM, Nutt DJ, Wolpert L, editors. Understanding depression: A translational approach. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 17-36, 2009.

Why has natural selection left us so vulnerable to anxiety and mood disorders? Can J Psychiatry, 2011

Nesse & Stein: Towards a genuinely medical model for psychiatric nosology, BMC Medicine, 2012

Nesse RM, Berridge K Psychoactive drug use in evolutionary perspective. Science, 277: 63-65, 1997.

Nesse RM: What is mood for? Psycholoquy 2: Issue 9.2, November 24, 1991.

An early statement about the utility of mood

Nesse RM Emotional Disorders in Evolutionary Perspective. British Journal of Medical Psychology 71:397-415, 1998.

An article on how evolution can help explain emotional disorders

Nesse RM Is depression an adaptation? Archives of General Psychiatry, 57: 14-20, 2000.

This is the classic statement, the widely cited first article published in the new millenium in The Archives of General Psychiatry

A good general statement of my ideas about depression

Nesse, RM: Motivation and Melancholy: A Darwinian perspective. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 2001.

A general treatment of motivation and mood

Nesse RM: Natural selection and the elusiveness of happiness. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci; 359(1449):1333-47, 2004

If natural selection is so great, why are we so prone to anxiety and depression? The answer is here.

Nesse, RM: Evolutionary Psychology and Mental Health. Pages 903-937 in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Edited by David Buss, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken , NJ, 2005.

The most comprehensive statement of how evolutionary biology can help us to understand and treat mental disorders