Nesse RM, & Williams, GC Evolution and the Origins of Disease.
Scientific American, 29 (5): 86-93, 1998.
Probably the best very brief introduction.
Nesse
RM Research designs that address evolutionary questions about medical
disorders. pp. 16-26 in Evolutionary Medicine, S.
Stearns. New York, Oxford University Press, 1999.
I
have become preoccupied with standards of evidnce for testing
evolutionary hypotheses about disease. This is an early
exploration of the challenges. See more below on this topic.
Nesse
RM, Williams, GC On Darwinian medicine. Life
Science Research 3 (1): 1-17, 1999.
A fairly complete overview, published in China
Nesse,
RM On the difficulty of defining disease: A Darwinian perspective. Medicine,
Health Care and Philosophy, 4:37-46, 2001.
Scores
of articles try to define disease. This one offers an evolutionary view
of why the question is so challenging, and a biologically based
answer to the question.
Nesse,
RM: How is Darwinian medicine useful? Western Medical Journal, 174:
358-359, 2001.
A very brief article on the utility of Darwinian medicine
Nesse,
RM: Medicine's missing basic science. The New Physician, Dec. 2001: 8-10.
An introduction for medical students
Nesse
RM, Schiffman JD: Evolutionary Biology in the Medical
School Curriculum. BioScience 53 (6): 585-587, 2003.
A more sophisticated approach to the role of evolution in medical education, with data from 50 medical schools.
Nesse,
RM: Natural selection and the regulation of defensive responses. Evolution and Human Behavior, 26(1) 88-105, 2005.
This
article applies signal detection theory to the question of how
selection shapes systems that regulate defenses such as fever and pain
and concludes that inexpensive defenses are often expressed in
situations when they are not needed. This Smoke Detector Principle, has important clinical implications.
Nesse
RM, Weder A: Darwinian medicine: What evolutionary
medicine offers to endothelium researchers. In Endothelial Biomedicine, Edited by
William Aird, Cambridge University Press, 122-129, 2007.
The endothelium is crucial to health, but several trade-offs make it vulnerable to diseases including atherosclerosis.
Nesse
RM, Bhatnagar S, Young, E: The
evolutionary origins and functions of the stress response, The Encyclopedia of
Stress, Second Edition, Edited by George Fink, Academic Press: San Diego,
2007, 965-970.
Much
stress research proceeds as if stress is abnormal. This chapter reviews
the origins and useful functions of the stress response.
Nesse RM: The importance of evolution for medicine.
Chapter 23 in Evolutionary Medicine,
Edited by Trevathan W, Smith EO & McKenna, JJ,
Oxford University Press, 416-232, 2007.
This
chapter emphasizes the history and basic principles of
Darwininian medicine. It includes a discussion of Darwinian
versus evolutionary medicine, and, most importantly, an outline useful for testing evolutionary hypotheses in medicine, and a list of common serious mistakes.
Nesse RM: How
to Test an Evolutionary Hypothesis About Disease, 2007.
This is the table from the above article, especially useful for students writing papers on evolution and medicine.
Nesse
RM, Stearns SC, Omenn GS: 2006 Medicine needs
evolution (editorial). Science 311:1071.
A brief editoral that has had wide influence.
Stearns SC, Nesse RM, Haig D: Introducing
evolutionary thinking for medicine, Chapter 1 in Evolutionary Biology in Health and Disease, Edited by Stephen
Stearns & Jacob Koella, Oxford University Press, 3-15, 2007.
This chapter introduces the second edition of the volume edited by Stearns and Koella.
Web lectures
Podcast of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview on evolution and medicine, with some emphasis on depression and other mental disorders. (right click to download in MP3 format) Transcript also available on the ABC website.
Darwinian Medicine: The
Pleasures and Perils of New Questions
Lecture at a Symposium: Darwinian Evolution Across
the Disciplines Realplayer version of talks
from a Dartmouth Interdisciplinary Symposium October 29-30, 1999,
Evolution: The missing basic science that brings psychiatry coherence and deeper empathy. American Psychiatric Association Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecture 2005, recorded in MP3. (right click to download)
See other lectures at http://EvolutionAndMedicine.org and at http://HSTalks.com/evomed