Evolutionary medicine perspective on coping style and health outcomes: an exploratory study.

Evolutionary medicine perspective on coping style and health outcomes: an exploratory study. Homo. 2019 Oct 08;: Authors: Hromatko I, Tadinac M, Jokic-Begic N, Lauri-Korajlija A, Kotrulja L Abstract One of the issues within the framework of Darwinian medicine is why individuals develop the specific disease they do. Ethologists have long known that within any given population, there are organisms with the tendency towards higher (Hawks) or lower (Doves) aggressiveness, and since the physiological responses to stressful events are different in Hawks and Doves, it has been suggested that these strategies might be related to health outcomes. The aims of this exploratory study were to determine whether an analogues of Hawks and Doves as basic coping strategies could be defined among chronically ill patients and healthy controls and whether the proportion of Hawks and Doves differs among different groups of patients. Patients from several clinical departments (dermatology, gastroenterology and psychiatry) and a comparable group of healthy participants were recruited (N = 288). Based on their coping style and anxiety trait, they were categorized as either Hawks (low anxiety trait and problem-oriented coping style) or Doves (high anxiety trait and avoidant coping style). We found a significantly larger proportion of Hawks among patients with gastroenterological and dermatologic symptoms, and significantly more Doves among psychiatric patient...
Source: Homo - Category: Physiology Authors: Tags: Homo Source Type: research