Why Do So Many Mental Illnesses Overlap?
Why Do So Many Mental Illnesses Overlap?
A concept called the “p factor” attempts to explain why psychiatric disorders cannot be clearly separated
Same cause, different parts of the brain. OCD, tourettes, autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are basically the same disorder (not sure about schizophrenia). Same disorder affecting different structures in the brain.
ADHD: prefrontal cortex
Tourettes: basal nuclei
Autism: amygdala
Broad strokes but you get the idea.
I have ADHD, autism, and a Masters in neuroscience so I'm not just talking out of my arse.
We're taking about general reduced functioning in these parts of the brain, correct? Any thoughts about what this disorder might be?
I'm riding the ADHD train myself and I'm fascinated with the comorbidities being as common as they are.
Not exactly it's more like when you get an old am radio and it's not quite tuned into the station correctly. The signal is just as strong but there's a lot of interference so you have to make more of an effort to interpret it.
I wonder what the numbers are for hunter scavenger societies.
I remember seeing a hypothesis that ADHD would have been beneficial in Hunter-gathering, as you would more quickly move from plant to plant rather than fully depleting a resource. It was just one study where they had a sort of game/simulation to test it though, so very early days on that theory.
Here is the actual article (no paywall).