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A New Method in Psychopathology Research: Network Analysis

Year 2024, Volume: 16 Issue: 2, 358 - 372, 30.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.18863/pgy.1306952

Abstract

Though network analysis has a long history in both natural and social sciences it has emerged as a new method in psychology in recent years. Unlike medical disorders, mental disorders are not observable in laboratory. However, we can identify them by the way of observable symptoms. According to the network perspective, a disorder occurs when an external event triggers a psychological symptom. Activated symptom also interacts with other symptoms and forms a pattern of symptoms. Network approach criticizes traditional categorical diagnostic approach and focuses on symptom organization. Probably, treating the most effective symptom will accelerate recovery process and provide more effective treatment. Network analysis can be used in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Psychological networks provide opportunities to investigate direction of the relationship among symptoms, comorbidity, external triggers of psychological symptoms, effectiveness of treatment, comparison of symptom pattern according to sample characteristics. Despite the utility of psychological networks, accuracy of them has been questioned and certain methods to prove accuracy of networks proposed as response. Technological progress in recent years enabled network analysis to be more eligible in psychology. R Statistics software is very useful in network analysis which is totally free and open sourced and supported by many additional packages. This review article aims is to provide information about usage of network analysis in psychology, especially in clinical research. In the first part historical and theoretical background of network analysis was introduced and in the following parts structure, validity of psychological networks and R Statistics Software which is used for conducting network analysis were explained briefly.

References

  • Anker JJ, Forbes MK, Almquist ZW, Menk JS, Thuras P, Unruh AS et al. (2017) A network approach to modeling comorbid internalizing and alcohol use disorders. J Abnorm Psychol, 126:325–339.
  • Bai W, Cai H, Liu S, Chen X, Sha S, Cheung T et al. (2021) Anxiety and depressive symptoms in college students during the late stage of the COVID-19 outbreak: a network approach. Transl Psychiatry, 11:638.
  • Betz L, Penzel N, Rosen M, Kambeitz J (2020) Relationships between childhood trauma and perceived stress in the general population: a network perspective. Psychol Med, 51: 2696-2706.
  • Borsboom D (2017) A network theory of mental disorders. World Psychiatry, 16:5-13.
  • Borsboom D, Fried EI, Epskamp S, Waldorp LJ, van Borkulo CD, van der Maas HLJ, Cramer AOJ (2017) False alarm? a comprehensive reanalysis of "vidence that psychopathology symptom networks have limited replicability" by Forbes, Wright, Markon, and Krueger J Abnorm Psychol. 126:989-999.
  • Borsboom D and Cramer A O (2013). Network analysis: An intergative approach to the structure of psychopathology. Annu Rev Clin Psychol, 9:91-121.
  • Borsboom D (2022) Possible futures for network psychometrics. Psychometrika, 87:253-265.
  • Boschloo L, van Borkulo CD, Rhemtulla M, Keyes KM, Borsboom D, Schoevers RA (2015). The network structure of symptoms of the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders. Plos One, 10:e0137621.
  • Breuer F, Greggersen W, Kalh KG, Schweiger U, Westermair AL (2020). Caught in a web of trauma: network analysis of childhood adversity and adult mental ill-health. Child Abuse Negl, 107:104534.
  • Bringmann LF, Albers C, Bockting C, Borsboom D, Ceulemans E, Cramer A et al. (2022). Psychopathological networks: theory, methods and practice. Behav Res Ther, 149: 104011.
  • Demir İ, Çene E, Karaboğa HA, Şener E, Bozkır Ö, Akoğul S et al. (2017). R ile Uygulamalı İstatistik. İstanbul, Papatya Yayıncılık.
  • Epskamp S, Fried EI (2018). A tutorial on regularized partial correlation networks. Psychol Methods, 4:617-637.
  • Epskamp S, Borsboom D, Fried EI (2018). Estimating psychological networks and their accuracy: A tutorial paper. Behav Res Methods, 50:195-212.
  • Epskamp S, Kruis J, Marsman M (2017). Estimating psychopathological networks: Be careful what you wish for. Plos One. 12:e0179891.
  • Epskamp S, Cramer, AO, Waldrop LJ, Schmittmann VD and Borsboom D (2012). qgraph: Network visualizations of relationships in psychometric data. J Stat Softw, 48:1-18.
  • Epskamp S, van Borkoulo C, van der Veen DC, Servaas MN, Isvoranu A-M, Riese H et al. Personalized network modeling in psychopathology: the ımportance of contemporaneous and temporal connections. Clin Psychol Sci, 6:416-427.
  • Fruchterman TM, Reingold EM (1991). Graph drawing by force-directed placement. Softw Pract Exp, 21:1129-1164.
  • Forrest LN, Jones PJ, Ortiz SN, Smith AR (2018). Core psychopathology in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: A network analysis. Int J Eat Disord, 7:668-679.
  • Gay NG, Wisco BE, Jones EC, Murphy AD (2020). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom network structures: a comparison between men and women. J Trauma Stress Disord Treat, 1:96-105.
  • Gijzen MWM, Rasing SPA, Creemers DHM, Smit F, Engels RCME, De Beurs D (2021). Suicide ideation as a symptom of adolescent depression. a network analysis, J Affect Disord Rep, 278:68-77.
  • Goldbeck J (2013) Analyzing the Social Web. Massachusetts, Morgan Kaufmann.
  • Güreşen Ü, Dereboy Ç (2023) Pathways between childhood trauma and adulthood psychopathology: a network study. Curr Psychol, doi: 10.1007/s12144-023-05242-4
  • Güzeller CO, Eser MT, Aksu G (2016) Ucinet ile Sosyal Ağ Analizi. Ankara, Maya Akademi.
  • Hartanto A, Yong JC, Lee ST, Ng WQ, Tong EM (2020) Putting adversity in perspective: purpose in life moderates the link between childhood emotional abuse and neglect and adulthood depressive symptoms. J Ment Health, 29:473-482.
  • Haslbeck JM, Waldrop LJ (2018) How well do network models predict observations? On the importance of predictability in network models. Behav Res Methods,50:853-861
  • Heeren A, McNally RJ (2016) An integrative network approach to social anxiety disorder: The complex dynamic interplay among attentional bias for threat, attentional control, and symptoms, J Anxiety Disord, 42:95-104
  • Heeren A, Jones PJ, McNally RJ (2018) Mapping network connectivity among symptoms of social anxiety and comorbid depression in people with social anxiety disorder. J Affect Disord, 228:75-82.
  • Hevey D (2018) Network analysis: A brief overview and tutorial. Health Psychol Behav Med, 6:301-328.
  • Isvoranu AM, van Borkulo CD, Boyette LL, Wigman JT, Vinkers CH, Borsboom D (2017) A network approach to psychosis pathways between childhood trauma and psychotic symptoms. Schizophr Bull, 43:187-196.
  • Isvoranu AM (2021) From Syndromes to Symptoms Network Models of Psychosis and Beyond. Enschede, Netherland, Ipskamp.
  • Johnson SU, Hoffart A (2018) Metacognitive therapy versus cognitive behavioral therapy: a network approach. Front Psychol, 9:2382.
  • Jones, PJ, Mair P, McNally RJ (2018) Visualizing psychological networks: A tutorial in R. Front Psychol, 9:1742.
  • Jones PJ, Ma R, McNally RJ (2021) Bridge centrality: A network approach to understanding comorbidity. Multivariate Behav Res, 56:353-367.
  • Luke DA (2015) A User's Guide to Network Analysis in R. Cham, Springer.
  • Mair P (2018) Networks. In Modern Psychometrics with R.: 313-334. Cham, Springer International.
  • Paoletti T (2006) Leonard Euler's solution to the Konigsberg Bridge problem. Convergence: Where Mathematics, History, and Teaching Meet, 3:12.
  • McNally RJ (2016) Can network analysis transform psychopathology? Behav Res Ther, 86:95-104.
  • McNally RJ, Robinaugh DJ, WU GWY, Wang L, Deserno MK, Borsboom D. (2014) Mental disorders as causal systems: a network approach to posttraumatic stress disorder. Clin Psychol Sci, 3:836–849.
  • McNally RJ, Heeren A, Robinaugh DJ (2017) A Bayesian network analysis of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults reporting childhood sexual abuse. Eur J Psychotraumatol, 8:1341276.
  • McNally RJ, Mair P, Mungo BL, Rieman BC (2017) Co-morbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression: a bayesian network approach. Psychol Med, 47:1204-1214.
  • Mullarkey MC, Marchetti I, Beevers CG (2019) Using network analysis to ıdentify central symptoms of adolescent depression. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol, 48:656-668.
  • Papini S, Rubin M, Telch MJ, Smits JA, Hien DA (2020). Pretreatment posttraumatic stress disorder symptom network metrics predict the strength of the association between node change and network change during treatment. J Trauma Stress, 33:64-71.
  • Ren L, Wei Z, Li Y, Wang Y, Wu L, Wie X et al. (2021) The relations between different components of intolerance of uncertainty and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder: a network analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 21:448.
  • Robinaugh DJ, Millner AJ, McNally RJ (2016). Identifying highly ınfluential nodes in the complicated grief network. J Abnorm Psychol, 125:747-757.
  • Sanchez-Garcia M, Rosa-Cáceres A, de la Díaz-Batanero C, Fernández-Calderón F, Lozano OM (2022) Cocaine use disorder criteria in a clinical sample: an analysis using Item Response Theory, factor analysis, and network analysis, Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse, 48:284-292.
  • Strauss GP, Esfahlani FZ, Galderisi S, Mucci A, Rossi A, Bucci P et al. (2019) Network analysis reveals the latent structure of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, Schizophr Bull, 45:1033–1041.
  • van Borkulo CD, Borsboom D, Epskamp S, Blanken TF, Boschloo L, Schoevers RA et al. (2014). A new method for constructing networks from binary data. Sci Rep, 4:5918.
  • van Borkulo C (2019) networktools: Tools for identifying important nodes in networks. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/networktools/ (Accessed 01.07.2023).
  • van Rooijen G, Isvoranu AM, Meijer CJ, van Borkulo CD, Ruhé HG, de Haan L et al. (2017) A symptom network structure of the psychosis spectrum. Schizophr Res, 189:75-83.
  • Wasil AR, Venturo-Conerly KE, Shinde S, Patel V, Jones PJ (2020) Applying network analysis to understand depression and substance use in Indian adolescents, J Affect Disord, 265:278-286.

Psikopatoloji Araştırmalarında Yeni Bir Yöntem: Ağ Analizi

Year 2024, Volume: 16 Issue: 2, 358 - 372, 30.06.2024
https://doi.org/10.18863/pgy.1306952

Abstract

Ağ analizi doğa bilimlerinde ve sosyal bilimlerde uzun zamandır kullanılan bir veri analizi yöntemi olmasına karşın psikoloji alanında kullanımı henüz yenidir. Psikolojik bozukluklarda diğer tıbbi hastalıklardan farklı olarak bozukluğun belirti vermeden önce laboratuvar ortamında ya da çeşitli görüntüleme yöntemleriyle gözlenebilmesi mümkün değildir. Ancak bütün psikolojik bozukluklar gözlenebilen belirtiler sayesinde tespit edilebilir. Buna göre tetikleyici bir dışsal bir etken tarafından etkinleştirilen belirti diğer belirtileri de etkinleştirerek bir döngü oluşturur. Klinik psikolojide ağ yaklaşımı geleneksel kategorik tanı yaklaşımlarına eleştiri getirerek öncelikle psikolojik bozuklukları oluşturan belirtilerin organizasyonunun ve aralarındaki etkileşimin incelenmesi gerektiğini savunur. Böylece sağaltım aşamasında önemli rol oynayan belirtilere müdahale edilmesi hem tedaviyi çabuklaştıracak hem de daha etkili bir sağaltım sağlayacaktır. Ağ analizi hem kesitsel hem de boylamsal çalışmalardan elde edilen verileri analiz etmek için kullanılabilmektedir. Psikometrik ağlar psikolojik bozukluğu oluşturan önemli belirtilerin yanı sıra bu belirtiler arası yönlü ilişkileri tespit edebilme, komorbidite, belirti örüntüsünü tetikleyici etkenlerin incelenmesi, müdahale etkililiğinin incelenmesi, farklı örneklem özelliklerine göre belirti örüntülerin karşılaştırılması gibi geniş olanaklar sağlamaktadır. Buna karşın psikometrik ağların geçerliği tartışma konusu olmuş ve psikometrik ağların güvenilirliğini arttırmak için çeşitli yöntemler geliştirilmiştir. Son yıllardaki teknolojik gelişmeler diğer bilimlerde olduğu gibi psikolojide de ağ analizinin uygulanmasını kolaylaştırmıştır. Özellikle ek paket programlarla da desteklenen ve tamamen ücretsiz olarak erişime açık olan R istatistiği yazılımı psikolojide ağ analizi gerçekleştirmek için geniş olanaklar sağlamaktadır. Bu derleme yazısında ağ analizinin tarihsel ve kuramsal alt yapısı, psikometrik ağların özellikle de klinik araştırmalarda kullanım alanları, yapısı ve geçerliliği, ağ analizi gerçekleştirmek için kullanılan R istatistiği yazılımı hakkında kısa bir bilgilendirme yapılması amaçlanmaktadır.

Supporting Institution

Bu çalışma için herhangi bir kişi ya da kurumdan destek alınmamıştır.

References

  • Anker JJ, Forbes MK, Almquist ZW, Menk JS, Thuras P, Unruh AS et al. (2017) A network approach to modeling comorbid internalizing and alcohol use disorders. J Abnorm Psychol, 126:325–339.
  • Bai W, Cai H, Liu S, Chen X, Sha S, Cheung T et al. (2021) Anxiety and depressive symptoms in college students during the late stage of the COVID-19 outbreak: a network approach. Transl Psychiatry, 11:638.
  • Betz L, Penzel N, Rosen M, Kambeitz J (2020) Relationships between childhood trauma and perceived stress in the general population: a network perspective. Psychol Med, 51: 2696-2706.
  • Borsboom D (2017) A network theory of mental disorders. World Psychiatry, 16:5-13.
  • Borsboom D, Fried EI, Epskamp S, Waldorp LJ, van Borkulo CD, van der Maas HLJ, Cramer AOJ (2017) False alarm? a comprehensive reanalysis of "vidence that psychopathology symptom networks have limited replicability" by Forbes, Wright, Markon, and Krueger J Abnorm Psychol. 126:989-999.
  • Borsboom D and Cramer A O (2013). Network analysis: An intergative approach to the structure of psychopathology. Annu Rev Clin Psychol, 9:91-121.
  • Borsboom D (2022) Possible futures for network psychometrics. Psychometrika, 87:253-265.
  • Boschloo L, van Borkulo CD, Rhemtulla M, Keyes KM, Borsboom D, Schoevers RA (2015). The network structure of symptoms of the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders. Plos One, 10:e0137621.
  • Breuer F, Greggersen W, Kalh KG, Schweiger U, Westermair AL (2020). Caught in a web of trauma: network analysis of childhood adversity and adult mental ill-health. Child Abuse Negl, 107:104534.
  • Bringmann LF, Albers C, Bockting C, Borsboom D, Ceulemans E, Cramer A et al. (2022). Psychopathological networks: theory, methods and practice. Behav Res Ther, 149: 104011.
  • Demir İ, Çene E, Karaboğa HA, Şener E, Bozkır Ö, Akoğul S et al. (2017). R ile Uygulamalı İstatistik. İstanbul, Papatya Yayıncılık.
  • Epskamp S, Fried EI (2018). A tutorial on regularized partial correlation networks. Psychol Methods, 4:617-637.
  • Epskamp S, Borsboom D, Fried EI (2018). Estimating psychological networks and their accuracy: A tutorial paper. Behav Res Methods, 50:195-212.
  • Epskamp S, Kruis J, Marsman M (2017). Estimating psychopathological networks: Be careful what you wish for. Plos One. 12:e0179891.
  • Epskamp S, Cramer, AO, Waldrop LJ, Schmittmann VD and Borsboom D (2012). qgraph: Network visualizations of relationships in psychometric data. J Stat Softw, 48:1-18.
  • Epskamp S, van Borkoulo C, van der Veen DC, Servaas MN, Isvoranu A-M, Riese H et al. Personalized network modeling in psychopathology: the ımportance of contemporaneous and temporal connections. Clin Psychol Sci, 6:416-427.
  • Fruchterman TM, Reingold EM (1991). Graph drawing by force-directed placement. Softw Pract Exp, 21:1129-1164.
  • Forrest LN, Jones PJ, Ortiz SN, Smith AR (2018). Core psychopathology in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: A network analysis. Int J Eat Disord, 7:668-679.
  • Gay NG, Wisco BE, Jones EC, Murphy AD (2020). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom network structures: a comparison between men and women. J Trauma Stress Disord Treat, 1:96-105.
  • Gijzen MWM, Rasing SPA, Creemers DHM, Smit F, Engels RCME, De Beurs D (2021). Suicide ideation as a symptom of adolescent depression. a network analysis, J Affect Disord Rep, 278:68-77.
  • Goldbeck J (2013) Analyzing the Social Web. Massachusetts, Morgan Kaufmann.
  • Güreşen Ü, Dereboy Ç (2023) Pathways between childhood trauma and adulthood psychopathology: a network study. Curr Psychol, doi: 10.1007/s12144-023-05242-4
  • Güzeller CO, Eser MT, Aksu G (2016) Ucinet ile Sosyal Ağ Analizi. Ankara, Maya Akademi.
  • Hartanto A, Yong JC, Lee ST, Ng WQ, Tong EM (2020) Putting adversity in perspective: purpose in life moderates the link between childhood emotional abuse and neglect and adulthood depressive symptoms. J Ment Health, 29:473-482.
  • Haslbeck JM, Waldrop LJ (2018) How well do network models predict observations? On the importance of predictability in network models. Behav Res Methods,50:853-861
  • Heeren A, McNally RJ (2016) An integrative network approach to social anxiety disorder: The complex dynamic interplay among attentional bias for threat, attentional control, and symptoms, J Anxiety Disord, 42:95-104
  • Heeren A, Jones PJ, McNally RJ (2018) Mapping network connectivity among symptoms of social anxiety and comorbid depression in people with social anxiety disorder. J Affect Disord, 228:75-82.
  • Hevey D (2018) Network analysis: A brief overview and tutorial. Health Psychol Behav Med, 6:301-328.
  • Isvoranu AM, van Borkulo CD, Boyette LL, Wigman JT, Vinkers CH, Borsboom D (2017) A network approach to psychosis pathways between childhood trauma and psychotic symptoms. Schizophr Bull, 43:187-196.
  • Isvoranu AM (2021) From Syndromes to Symptoms Network Models of Psychosis and Beyond. Enschede, Netherland, Ipskamp.
  • Johnson SU, Hoffart A (2018) Metacognitive therapy versus cognitive behavioral therapy: a network approach. Front Psychol, 9:2382.
  • Jones, PJ, Mair P, McNally RJ (2018) Visualizing psychological networks: A tutorial in R. Front Psychol, 9:1742.
  • Jones PJ, Ma R, McNally RJ (2021) Bridge centrality: A network approach to understanding comorbidity. Multivariate Behav Res, 56:353-367.
  • Luke DA (2015) A User's Guide to Network Analysis in R. Cham, Springer.
  • Mair P (2018) Networks. In Modern Psychometrics with R.: 313-334. Cham, Springer International.
  • Paoletti T (2006) Leonard Euler's solution to the Konigsberg Bridge problem. Convergence: Where Mathematics, History, and Teaching Meet, 3:12.
  • McNally RJ (2016) Can network analysis transform psychopathology? Behav Res Ther, 86:95-104.
  • McNally RJ, Robinaugh DJ, WU GWY, Wang L, Deserno MK, Borsboom D. (2014) Mental disorders as causal systems: a network approach to posttraumatic stress disorder. Clin Psychol Sci, 3:836–849.
  • McNally RJ, Heeren A, Robinaugh DJ (2017) A Bayesian network analysis of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults reporting childhood sexual abuse. Eur J Psychotraumatol, 8:1341276.
  • McNally RJ, Mair P, Mungo BL, Rieman BC (2017) Co-morbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression: a bayesian network approach. Psychol Med, 47:1204-1214.
  • Mullarkey MC, Marchetti I, Beevers CG (2019) Using network analysis to ıdentify central symptoms of adolescent depression. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol, 48:656-668.
  • Papini S, Rubin M, Telch MJ, Smits JA, Hien DA (2020). Pretreatment posttraumatic stress disorder symptom network metrics predict the strength of the association between node change and network change during treatment. J Trauma Stress, 33:64-71.
  • Ren L, Wei Z, Li Y, Wang Y, Wu L, Wie X et al. (2021) The relations between different components of intolerance of uncertainty and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder: a network analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 21:448.
  • Robinaugh DJ, Millner AJ, McNally RJ (2016). Identifying highly ınfluential nodes in the complicated grief network. J Abnorm Psychol, 125:747-757.
  • Sanchez-Garcia M, Rosa-Cáceres A, de la Díaz-Batanero C, Fernández-Calderón F, Lozano OM (2022) Cocaine use disorder criteria in a clinical sample: an analysis using Item Response Theory, factor analysis, and network analysis, Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse, 48:284-292.
  • Strauss GP, Esfahlani FZ, Galderisi S, Mucci A, Rossi A, Bucci P et al. (2019) Network analysis reveals the latent structure of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, Schizophr Bull, 45:1033–1041.
  • van Borkulo CD, Borsboom D, Epskamp S, Blanken TF, Boschloo L, Schoevers RA et al. (2014). A new method for constructing networks from binary data. Sci Rep, 4:5918.
  • van Borkulo C (2019) networktools: Tools for identifying important nodes in networks. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/networktools/ (Accessed 01.07.2023).
  • van Rooijen G, Isvoranu AM, Meijer CJ, van Borkulo CD, Ruhé HG, de Haan L et al. (2017) A symptom network structure of the psychosis spectrum. Schizophr Res, 189:75-83.
  • Wasil AR, Venturo-Conerly KE, Shinde S, Patel V, Jones PJ (2020) Applying network analysis to understand depression and substance use in Indian adolescents, J Affect Disord, 265:278-286.
There are 50 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Psychology
Journal Section Review
Authors

Ülkü Güreşen 0000-0002-2505-4094

Early Pub Date January 28, 2024
Publication Date June 30, 2024
Acceptance Date October 25, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2024 Volume: 16 Issue: 2

Cite

AMA Güreşen Ü. A New Method in Psychopathology Research: Network Analysis. Psikiyatride Güncel Yaklaşımlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry. June 2024;16(2):358-372. doi:10.18863/pgy.1306952

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