The network approach to psychopathology: investigating inter-individual variability and the association with clinical relapse in psychosis

TL;DR

This paper explores how interconnected symptoms in psychosis form networks and finds that these networks vary a lot between individuals and don't strongly predict relapse.

Contribution

The study reveals significant inter-individual variability in symptom networks and challenges assumptions about their association with clinical outcomes.

Findings

Substantial inter-individual variability in psychological symptom network structures was identified.

No strong evidence was found linking network structure to clinical relapse in psychosis.

Abstract

Recent years have seen a proliferation of interest in psychological networks, which conceptualise psychopathology as networks of inter-connected, mutually reinforcing symptoms. It has been hypothesised that the topological structure of such networks is associated with clinical presentation. Analysing data from a longitudinal study of participants diagnosed with psychosis, we identify substantial inter-individual variability in network structure, problematising causal inference from cross-sectional networks. Additionally, we do not find strong evidence for an association between network structure and clinical relapse.

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