The Mereology of Depression—Networks of Depressive Symptoms during the Course of Psychotherapy

Höller, Inken; Schreiber, Dajana; Bos, Fionneke M.; Forkmann, Thomas; Teismann, Tobias; Margraf, Jürgen

doi:10.3390/ijerph19127131

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…This implies that when negative emotions are already high, greater variability indicates the system can change in a positive direction. Another consistent finding in the cross-sectional network literature is that depression network connectivity increases, rather than decreases, after successful treatment ( 28 – 31 ). Likewise, among patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, positive and negative symptom networks increase in connectivity when patients respond to treatment ( 32 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Elevated emotion network connectivity is associated with fluctuations in depression

Kelley,

Fisher,

Lee

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Elevated emotion network connectivity is thought to leave people vulnerable to become and stay depressed. The mechanism through which this arises is however unclear. Here, we test the idea that the connectivity of emotion networks is associated with more extreme fluctuations in depression over time, rather than necessarily more severe depression. We gathered data from two independent samples of N = 155 paid students and N = 194 citizen scientists who rated their positive and negative emotions on a smartphone app twice a day and completed a weekly depression questionnaire for 8 wk. We constructed thousands of personalized emotion networks for each participant and tested whether connectivity was associated with severity of depression or its variance over 8 wk. Network connectivity was positively associated with baseline depression severity in citizen scientists, but not paid students. In contrast, 8-wk variance of depression was correlated with network connectivity in both samples. When controlling for depression variance, the association between connectivity and baseline depression severity in citizen scientists was no longer significant. We replicated these findings in an independent community sample ( N = 519). We conclude that elevated network connectivity is associated with greater variability in depression symptoms. This variability only translates into increased severity in samples where depression is on average low and positively skewed, causing mean and variance to be more strongly correlated. These findings, although correlational, suggest that while emotional network connectivity could predispose individuals to severe depression, it could also be leveraged to bring about therapeutic improvements.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Elevated emotion network connectivity is associated with fluctuations in depression

Kelley,

Fisher,

Lee

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This implies that when negative emotions are already high, greater variability indicates the system can change in a positive direction. Another consistent finding in the cross-sectional network literature is that depression network connectivity increases, rather than decreases, after successful treatment (27)(28)(29)(30). Likewise, among patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, positive and negative symptom networks increase in connectivity when patients respond to treatment (31).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Elevated Emotion Network Connectivity Is Associated with Fluctuations in Depression

Kelley¹,

Fisher²,

Lee³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Elevated emotion network connectivity is thought to leave people vulnerable to become and stay depressed. The mechanism through which this arises is however unclear. Here, we test the idea that the connectivity of emotion networks causes people to suffer more extreme fluctuations in depression over time, rather than necessarily more severe depression. We gathered data from 2 independent samples of N=155 paid students and N=194 citizen scientists who rated their positive and negative emotions on a smartphone app twice a day and completed a weekly depression questionnaire for 8 weeks. We constructed thousands of personalised emotion networks for each participant and tested if connectivity was associated with severity of depression or its variance over 8 weeks. Network connectivity was positively associated with baseline depression severity in citizen scientists, but not paid students. In contrast, 8-week variance of depression was correlated with network connectivity in both samples. When controlling for depression variance, the association between connectivity and baseline depression severity in citizen scientists was no longer significant. We replicated these findings in an independent community sample (N=519). We conclude that elevated network connectivity primarily leads to greater variability in depression symptoms. This variability only translates into increased severity in samples where depression is on average low and positively skewed, causing mean and variance to be more strongly correlated. These findings underscore how emotional network connectivity has bi-directional effects; risk for severe bouts of depression, but also the potential to be harnessed to bring about improvements.

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Effects of Exercise Training on Executive Functioning in Adults with Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Ren,

Alderman,

Wang

et al. 2023

Sports Med

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The Mereology of Depression—Networks of Depressive Symptoms during the Course of Psychotherapy

Cited by 7 publications

References 51 publications

Elevated emotion network connectivity is associated with fluctuations in depression

Elevated emotion network connectivity is associated with fluctuations in depression

Elevated Emotion Network Connectivity Is Associated with Fluctuations in Depression

Effects of Exercise Training on Executive Functioning in Adults with Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

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