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The Small World of Psychopathology

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  • Denny Borsboom
  • Angélique O J Cramer
  • Verena D Schmittmann
  • Sacha Epskamp
  • Lourens J Waldorp

Abstract

Background: Mental disorders are highly comorbid: people having one disorder are likely to have another as well. We explain empirical comorbidity patterns based on a network model of psychiatric symptoms, derived from an analysis of symptom overlap in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). Principal Findings: We show that a) half of the symptoms in the DSM-IV network are connected, b) the architecture of these connections conforms to a small world structure, featuring a high degree of clustering but a short average path length, and c) distances between disorders in this structure predict empirical comorbidity rates. Network simulations of Major Depressive Episode and Generalized Anxiety Disorder show that the model faithfully reproduces empirical population statistics for these disorders. Conclusions: In the network model, mental disorders are inherently complex. This explains the limited successes of genetic, neuroscientific, and etiological approaches to unravel their causes. We outline a psychosystems approach to investigate the structure and dynamics of mental disorders.

Suggested Citation

  • Denny Borsboom & Angélique O J Cramer & Verena D Schmittmann & Sacha Epskamp & Lourens J Waldorp, 2011. "The Small World of Psychopathology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-11, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0027407
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027407
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Teri A. Manolio & Francis S. Collins & Nancy J. Cox & David B. Goldstein & Lucia A. Hindorff & David J. Hunter & Mark I. McCarthy & Erin M. Ramos & Lon R. Cardon & Aravinda Chakravarti & Judy H. Cho &, 2009. "Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7265), pages 747-753, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sophie van der Sluis & Danielle Posthuma & Conor V Dolan, 2013. "TATES: Efficient Multivariate Genotype-Phenotype Analysis for Genome-Wide Association Studies," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, January.
    2. Laura F Bringmann & Nathalie Vissers & Marieke Wichers & Nicole Geschwind & Peter Kuppens & Frenk Peeters & Denny Borsboom & Francis Tuerlinckx, 2013. "A Network Approach to Psychopathology: New Insights into Clinical Longitudinal Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-13, April.

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