The “hypervigilance, escape, struggle, tonic immobility”\ud
evolutionarily hardwired acute peritraumatic response\ud
sequence is important for clinicians to understand. Our\ud
commentary supplements the useful article on human\ud
tonic immobility (TI) by Marx, Forsyth, Gallup, Fusé and Lexington (2008). A hallmark sign of TI is peritraumatic\ud
tachycardia, which others have documented as a\ud
major risk factor for subsequent posttraumatic stress\ud
disorder (PTSD). TI is evolutionarily highly conserved\ud
(uniform across species) and underscores the need for\ud
DSM-V planners to consider the inclusion of evolution\ud
theory in the reconceptualization of anxiety and PTSD.\ud
We discuss the relevance of evolution theory to the\ud
DSM-V reconceptualization of acute dissociativeconversion\ud
symptoms and of epidemic sociogenic disorder(epidemic “hysteria”). Both are especially in need of attention in light of the increasing threat of terrorism\ud
against civilians. We provide other pertinent examples.\ud
Finally, evolution theory is not ideology driven (and\ud
makes testable predictions regarding etiology in “both\ud
directions”). For instance, it predicted the unexpected\ud
finding that some disorders conceptualized in DSM-IV-TR as innate phobias are conditioned responses and thus better conceptualized as mild forms of PTSD. Evolution\ud
theory may offer a conceptual framework in\ud
DSM-V both for treatment and for research on psychopathology.\u
