Anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder in the context of human brain evolution: A role for theory in DSM-V?

The “hypervigilance, escape, struggle, tonic immobility” hardwired acute peritraumatic response is important for clinicians to understand. Our supplements the useful article on human immobility (TI) by Marx, Forsyth, Gallup, Fusé and Lexington (2008). A hallmark sign of TI is peritraumatic , which others have documented as a risk factor for subsequent posttraumatic stress (PTSD). TI is evolutionarily highly conserved (uniform across species) and underscores the need for -V planners to consider the inclusion of evolution in the reconceptualization of anxiety and PTSD. discuss the relevance of evolution theory to the -V reconceptualization of acute dissociativeconversion and of epidemic sociogenic disorder(epidemic “hysteria”). Both are especially in need of attention in light of the increasing threat of terrorism civilians. We provide other pertinent examples. , evolution theory is not ideology driven (and testable predictions regarding etiology in “both ”). For instance, it predicted the unexpected that some disorders conceptualized in DSM-IV-TR as innate phobias are conditioned responses and thus better conceptualized as mild forms of PTSD. Evolution may offer a conceptual framework in -V both for treatment and for research on psychopathology.