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Original scientific paper

Hawks and Doves: Testing the Hypothesis from Darwinian Medicine on the Psoriasis Model

Meri Tadinac orcid id orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-9000 ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Ivana HROMATKO ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Nataša JOKIĆ-BEGIĆ orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-2597-535X ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Lena KOTRULJA ; University Hospital Sestre milosrdnice, Zagreb


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Abstract

Darwinian medicine postulates a concept of "allostatic
overload" as a trigger for certain types of diseases. It also
postulates two behavioural strategies, doves and hawks,
which differ in the immune system responses to allostatic
load. The Darwinian medicine framework postulates that
hawks should have greater incidence of autoimmune and
inflammatory diseases. This hypothesis was tested on the
psoriasis model, as there are two types of psoriasis: type I,
with a genetic component, and type II, regarded as reactive,
i.e. dependant upon exogenous factors. Since psoriasis type I
is less dependant upon environmental triggers, we do not
expect differences between the personality profiles of these
patients and the comparable group of dermatological
patients. However, we do expect a specific personality profile
in patients with psoriasis type II, a disease which can be
considered a consequence of allostatic overload. We
compared MMPI-201 profiles of 44 patients with psoriasis
type I, 26 patients with psoriasis type II, and 70 patients
diagnosed with other skin diseases. Only patients diagnosed
with psoriasis type II showed a clinically indicative Hs-D-Hy
profile. Furthermore, although patients with a type II
psoriasis had objectively poorer clinical condition (as
measured with PASI index and exacerbation of illness), the
perception of psoriasis-induced stress in everyday life was
related only with the personality profile, and not with the type
of psoriasis. Since behavioural traits of people with Hs-D-Hy
profile resemble those of hawks, we consider this finding to
be indirect evidence in favour of the proposed hypothesis.

Keywords

Darwinian medicine; allostasis; psoriasis; personality

Hrčak ID:

37043

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/37043

Publication date:

30.4.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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