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Psychiatric disorders are common and seem to increase in prevalence worldwide. Most scientific approaches for this phenomenon fail to explain why the majority of mental disorders, unlike most somatic diseases, manifest in early adulthood, why individuals are not more resilient, and why some genes increasing the risk for mental disorders have not been selected against. In this article, an evolutionary perspective on mental health and disorder is taken. This perspective suggests that mismatches between ancestral and contemporary environments contribute to the risk for mental disorders. In addition, predictions from attachment theory and life history theory can explain individual differences with regard to the risk of developing a psychiatric or psychosomatic disorder. Insights from evolutionary approaches to psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders may contribute to improve the prevention and treatment of mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Religious delusions are prevalent symptoms in schizophrenia. It is unclear, however, whether religious delusions reflect illness- or culture-related factors., Methods: Cross-cultural retrospective comparison of the prevalence of religious delusions in 132 patients treated for paranoid schizophrenia in East Berlin (former GDR) from 1980 to 1985, and 151 patients from Regensburg (FRG) who were treated as in-patients from 1980 to 1983., Results: Prior to the German re-unification, religious delusions were significantly less frequent in East Berlin compared to Regensburg (11.6% as opposed to 28.6 %, chi2 = 8.029; p = 0.0046)., Conclusions: The prevalence of religious delusions in schizophrenia is, above all, associated with cultural factors. Religious delusions are therefore secondary phenomena in schizophrenia, and not inherent to the illness process.