Symptoms of social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder: A network perspective

Background: We used network analyses to examine symptoms that may play a role in the co-occurrence of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Whereas latent variable models examine relations among latent constructs, network analyses have the advantage of characterizing direct relations among the symptoms themselves. Method: We conducted network modeling on symptoms of social anxiety and depression in a clinical sample of 130 women who met criteria for SAD, MDD, both disorders, or had no lifetime history of mental illness. Results: In the resulting network, the core symptoms of social fear and depressed mood appeared at opposite ends of the network and were weakly related; so-called “bridges” between these symptoms appeared to occur via intervening variables. In particular, the worthless variable appeared to play a central role in the network. Limitations: Because our data were cross-sectional, we are unable to draw conclusions about the direction of these effects or whether these variables are related to each other prospectively. Conclusions: Continued testing of these pathways using longitudinal data will help facilitate the development of more effective clinical interventions for these disorders.