Combat stress in a small-scale society suggest divergent evolutionary roots for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms
Domain:
healthcareRecord type:
paper
Creator:
MatSar
Publisher:
Cen
Host:
Military personnel in industrialized societies often develop Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during combat. It is unclear whether combat-related PTSD is a universal evolutionary response to danger, or a culture-specific syndrome of industrialized societies. We interviewed 218 Turkana pastoralist warriors in Kenya, who engage in lethal cattle raids, about their combat experiences and PTSD symptoms. Turkana in our sample had a high prevalence of PTSD symptoms, but Turkana with high symptom severity had lower prevalence of depression-like symptoms than American service members with high symptom severity. Symptoms that facilitate responding to danger were better predicted by combat exposure, whereas depressive symptoms were better predicted by exposure to combat-relatedmoral violations. The findings suggest that some PTSD symptoms stem from a evolved response to danger, while depressive PTSD symptoms may be caused by culturally-specific moral norm violations.
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