scholarly journals Mental health, mitochondria, and the battle of the sexes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Bressan ◽  
Peter Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
The Other ◽  
Evolutionary Strategies ◽  
Broad Perspective ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Battle Of The Sexes ◽  
Growth Metabolism

This paper presents a broad perspective on how mental disease relates to the different evolutionary strategies of men and women and to growth, metabolism, and mitochondria—the enslaved bacteria in our cells that enable it all. Several mental disorders strike one sex more than the other; yet what truly matters, regardless of one’s sex, is how much one’s brain is “female” and how much it is “male”. This appears to be the result of an arms race between the parents over how many resources their child ought to extract from the mother, hence whether it should grow a lot or stay small and undemanding. An uneven battle alters the child’s risk of developing not only insulin resistance, diabetes, or cancer, but a mental disease as well. Maternal supremacy increases the odds of a psychosis-spectrum disorder; paternal supremacy, those of an autism-spectrum one. And a particularly lopsided struggle may invite one or the other of a series of syndromes that come in pairs, with diametrically opposite, excessively “male” or “female” characteristics. By providing the means for this tug of war, mitochondria take center stage in steadying or upsetting the precarious balance on which our mental health is built.

scholarly journals Mental Health, Mitochondria, and the Battle of the Sexes

Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Paola Bressan ◽  
Peter Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
The Other ◽  
Evolutionary Strategies ◽  
Broad Perspective ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Battle Of The Sexes ◽  
Growth Metabolism

This paper presents a broad perspective on how mental disease relates to the different evolutionary strategies of men and women and to growth, metabolism, and mitochondria—the enslaved bacteria in our cells that enable it all. Several mental disorders strike one sex more than the other; yet what truly matters, regardless of one’s sex, is how much one’s brain is “female” and how much it is “male”. This appears to be the result of an arms race between the parents over how many resources their child ought to extract from the mother, hence whether it should grow a lot or stay small and undemanding. An uneven battle alters the child’s risk of developing not only insulin resistance, diabetes, or cancer, but a mental disease as well. Maternal supremacy increases the odds of a psychosis-spectrum disorder; paternal supremacy, those of an autism-spectrum one. And a particularly lopsided struggle may invite one or the other of a series of syndromes that come in pairs, with diametrically opposite, excessively “male” or “female” characteristics. By providing the means for this tug of war, mitochondria take center stage in steadying or upsetting the precarious balance on which our mental health is built.

scholarly journals Exploring the Adult Life of Men and Women With Fragile X Syndrome: Results From a National Survey

2011 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigan L Hartley ◽  
Marsha Mailick Seltzer ◽  
Melissa Raspa ◽  
Murrey Olmstead ◽  
Ellen Bishop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Fragile X Syndrome ◽  
Fragile X ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Functional Skills ◽  
Employment Level ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Mental Health Conditions

Abstract Using data from a national family survey, the authors describe the adult lives (i.e., residence, employment, level of assistance needed with everyday life, friendships, and leisure activities) of 328 adults with the full mutation of the FMR1 gene and identify characteristics related to independence in these domains. Level of functional skills was the strongest predictor of independence in adult life for men, whereas ability to interact appropriately was the strongest predictor for women. Co-occurring mental health conditions influenced independence in adult life for men and women, in particular, autism spectrum disorders for men and affect problems for women. Services for adults with fragile X syndrome should not only target functional skills but interpersonal skills and co-occurring mental health conditions.

Two Cases of Recovery from Chronic Insanity

1887 ◽  
Vol 32 (140) ◽  
pp. 504-507
Author(s):  
Lloyd Francis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
The Other ◽  
Physical Injury ◽  
Primary Condition ◽  
The Road ◽  
Starting Point

I venture to add the following to the list of recorded cases of recovery from long-standing mental disease. In both the illness was of at least five years' duration, dating from the first appearance of symptoms; in both the restoration to mental health was complete, improvement, once established, being steady, rapid, and decided. Both were transferred from other asylums, apparently incurable. In each instance the primary condition was one of melancholia, with marked suicidal tendencies, giving place, after a considerable interval, to a definite and prolonged maniacal phase. In one case the resumption of pursuits, abstention from which had presumably brought on the attack, seemed to be the main agent in restoring the mental balance; in the other the shock of a physical injury appeared to be the starting point in the road to convalescence.

Therapy and prevention for mental health: What if mental diseases are mostly not brain disorders?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. A. Ioannidis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Brain Disorders ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Labor Education ◽  
Mental Diseases ◽  
Long Term Follow Up ◽  
Political Decisions

AbstractNeurobiology-based interventions for mental diseases and searches for useful biomarkers of treatment response have largely failed. Clinical trials should assess interventions related to environmental and social stressors, with long-term follow-up; social rather than biological endpoints; personalized outcomes; and suitable cluster, adaptive, and n-of-1 designs. Labor, education, financial, and other social/political decisions should be evaluated for their impacts on mental disease.

Public Mental Health on the Other Side of the Atlantic

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-330
Author(s):  
Richard H. Price
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
The Other

Does peer support improve mental health outcomes? Results from an RCT among HIV-positive men and women

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Simoni ◽  
David Huh ◽  
Samantha Yard ◽  
Kimberly F. Balsam ◽  
Keren Lehavot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Mental Health Outcomes ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Hiv Positive Men

Gender and Social Exclusion in European Migration Crisis

2018 ◽  
pp. 658-676
Author(s):  
Marlou Schrover
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
The Other ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The One ◽  
European Migration

This chapter discusses social exclusion in European migration from a gendered and historical perspective. It discusses how from this perspective the idea of a crisis in migration was repeatedly constructed. Gender is used in this chapter in a dual way: attention is paid to differences between men and women in (refugee) migration, and to differences between men and women as advocates and claim makers for migrant rights. There is a dilemma—recognized mostly for recent decades—that on the one hand refugee women can be used to generate empathy, and thus support. On the other hand, emphasis on women as victims forces them into a victimhood role and leaves them without agency. This dilemma played itself out throughout the twentieth century. It led to saving the victims, but not to solving the problem. It fortified rather than weakened the idea of a crisis.

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