The psychometric network structure of mental health in eating disorder patients

Vos, Jan Alexander de; Radstaak, Mirjam; Bohlmeijer, Ernst Thomas; Westerhof, Gerben Johan

doi:10.1002/erv.2832

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Remarkably, many studies reported no differences in network structure nor in global strength with regards to different ED diagnoses [ 42 , 50 , 61 ], age [ 34 , 35 , 75 ], and sex [ 75 , 76 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network-based methods for psychometric data of eating disorders: A systematic review

Punzi

Petti²,

Tieri³

2022

PLoS ONE

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Background Network science represents a powerful and increasingly promising method for studying complex real-world problems. In the last decade, it has been applied to psychometric data in the attempt to explain psychopathologies as complex systems of causally interconnected symptoms. One category of mental disorders, relevant for their severity, incidence and multifaceted structure, is that of eating disorders (EDs), serious disturbances that negatively affect a person’s eating behavior. Aims We aimed to review the corpus of psychometric network analysis methods by scrutinizing a large sample of network-based studies that exploit psychometric data related to EDs. A particular focus is given to the description of the methodologies for network estimation, network description and network stability analysis providing also a review of the statistical software packages currently used to carry out each phase of the network estimation and analysis workflow. Moreover, we try to highlight aspects with potential clinical impact such as core symptoms, influences of external factors, comorbidities, and related changes in network structure and connectivity across both time and subpopulations. Methods A systematic search was conducted (February 2022) on three different literature databases to identify 57 relevant research articles. The exclusion criteria comprehended studies not based on psychometric data, studies not using network analysis, studies with different aims or not focused on ED, and review articles. Results Almost all the selected 57 papers employed the same analytical procedures implemented in a collection of R packages specifically designed for psychometric network analysis and are mostly based on cross-sectional data retrieved from structured psychometric questionnaires, with just few exemptions of panel data. Most of them used the same techniques for all phases of their analysis. In particular, a pervasive use of the Gaussian Graphical Model with LASSO regularization was registered for in network estimation step. Among the clinically relevant results, we can include the fact that all papers found strong symptom interconnections between specific and nonspecific ED symptoms, suggesting that both types should therefore be addressed by clinical treatment. Conclusions We here presented the largest and most comprehensive review to date about psychometric network analysis methods. Although these methods still need solid validation in the clinical setting, they have already been able to show many strengths and important results, as well as great potentials and perspectives, which have been analyzed here to provide suggestions on their use and their possible improvement.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network-based methods for psychometric data of eating disorders: A systematic review

Punzi

Petti²,

Tieri³

2022

PLoS ONE

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“…In line with the application to other mental disorders, various research goals can be identified among the existing literature about network approaches to EDs, namely: validation of the transdiagnostic model of eating disorders by comparing network characteristics across ED diagnoses (DuBois et al, 2017; Forrest et al, 2018; Goldschmidt et al, 2018; Mares et al, 2021; Monteleone, Tzischinsky, et al, 2022; Solmi et al, 2018; Solmi et al, 2019); estimation of the symptom network of EDs and identification of the core symptoms (Beauchamp et al, 2021; Forbush et al, 2016; Forrest et al, 2018; Forrest, Perkins, et al, 2019; Rodgers et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2019); identification and interaction with nonspecific ED symptoms (i.e., the external field) like general psychiatric symptoms, personality traits and other clinical variables (Monteleone, Mereu, et al, 2019; Solmi et al, 2018; Solmi et al, 2019), embodiment dimensions (Cascino et al, 2019), childhood maltreatment (Liebman et al, 2021; Monteleone, Cascino, et al, 2019; Monteleone, Tzischinsky, et al, 2022; Rodgers et al, 2019), mentalizing and empathy (Monteleone et al, 2020), vulnerability factors (Vervaet et al, 2021), suicidal thoughts and behaviors (Smith et al, 2020), perfectionism and interoceptive sensibility (Martini et al, 2021), affective and metacognitive symptoms (Aloi et al, 2021; Wong et al, 2021), interoceptive awareness (Brown et al, 2020), sleep disturbance (Ralph-Nearman et al, 2021), well-being domains (de Vos et al, 2021), inflexible and biased social interpretations, socioemotional functioning (Bronstein et al, 2022); assessment of psychiatric comorbidities such as depression and anxiety (Bronstein et al, 2022; Elliott et al, 2020; Kenny et al, 2021; Levinson et al, 2017; Sahlan, Williams, et al, 2021; Smith et al, 2019), posttraumatic stress disorder (Liebman et al, 2021; Vanzhula et al, 2019), social anxiety disorder (Levinson et al, 2018a; Sahlan, Keshishian, et al, 2021), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Giles et al, 2022; Kinkel-Ram et al, 2021; Meier et al, 2020; Vanzhula et al, 2021), trait anxiety disorder (Forrest, Sarfan, et al, 2019), autism spectrum disorder (Kerr-Gaffney et al, 2020), borderline personality disorder (De Paoli et al, 2020), and alcohol misuse (Cusack et al, 2021); comparison of estimated network structures among clinical and nonclinical (Vanzhula et al, 2019),...…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remarkably, many studies reported no differences in network structure nor in global strength with regards to different ED diagnoses (de Vos et al, 2021; Goldschmidt et al, 2018; Mares et al, 2021), age (Brown et al, 2020; Calugi et al, 2020; Sahlan, Williams, et al, 2021), and sex (Sahlan, Keshishian, et al, 2021; Sahlan, Williams, et al, 2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…identification and interaction with nonspecific ED symptoms (i.e., the external field) like general psychiatric symptoms, personality traits and other clinical variables (Monteleone, Mereu, et al, 2019; Solmi et al, 2018; Solmi et al, 2019), embodiment dimensions (Cascino et al, 2019), childhood maltreatment (Liebman et al, 2021; Monteleone, Cascino, et al, 2019; Monteleone, Tzischinsky, et al, 2022; Rodgers et al, 2019), mentalizing and empathy (Monteleone et al, 2020), vulnerability factors (Vervaet et al, 2021), suicidal thoughts and behaviors (Smith et al, 2020), perfectionism and interoceptive sensibility (Martini et al, 2021), affective and metacognitive symptoms (Aloi et al, 2021; Wong et al, 2021), interoceptive awareness (Brown et al, 2020), sleep disturbance (Ralph-Nearman et al, 2021), well-being domains (de Vos et al, 2021), inflexible and biased social interpretations, socioemotional functioning (Bronstein et al, 2022);…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Network-Based Methods for Psychometric Data of Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review

Punzi

Petti

Tieri

2022

Preprint

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Network science represents a powerful and increasingly promising method for studying complex real-world problems. In the last decade, it has been applied to psychometric data in the attempt to explain psychopathologies as complex systems of causally interconnected symptoms. With this work, we aimed to review a large sample of network-based studies that exploit psychometric data related to eating disorders (EDs) trying to highlight important aspects such as core symptoms, influences of external factors, comorbidities, and changes in network structure and connectivity across both time and subpopulations. A particular focus is here given to the potentialities and limitations of the available methodologies used in the field. At the same time, we also give a review of the statistical software packages currently used to carry out each phase of the network estimation and analysis workflow. Although many theoretical results, especially those concerning the ED core symptoms, have already been confirmed by multiple studies, their supporting function in clinical treatment still needs to be thoroughly assessed.

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“…The full text of the remaining 65 articles and 3 dissertations were assessed, leading to the exclusion of an additional 35 articles. The remaining 33 articles were thus included in the review (Brown et al, 2020;Calugi et al, 2020Calugi et al, , 2021Calugi et al, , 2022Cascino et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2022;de Vos et al, 2021;DuBois et al, 2017;Elliott et al, 2020;Forrest et al, 2018Forrest et al, , 2019Goldschmidt et al, 2018;Hagan et al, 2021;Hilbert et al, 2020;Kerr-Gaffney et al, 2020;Levinson et al, 2017;Mares et al, 2022;Meier et al, 2020;Monteleone et al, 2019Monteleone et al, , 2020Monteleone et al, , 2022Olatunji et al, 2018;Ralph-Nearman et al, 2021;Schlegl et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2019;Smith et al, 2020;Solmi et al, 2018Solmi et al, , 2019Vanzhula et al, 2019;Vervaet et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2019;Wong et al, 2021). See Figure 1 for the flowchart of the selection process, including reasons for exclusion at each step.…”

Section: Selection Of Articles and Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network analysis studies in patients with eating disorders: A systematic review and methodological quality assessment

Tomei

Pieroni

Tomba

2022

Intl J Eating Disorders

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Introduction Network psychometrics has been enthusiastically embraced by researchers studying eating disorders (ED), but a rigorous evaluation of the methodological quality of works is still missing. This systematic review aims to assess the methodological quality of cross‐sectional network analysis (NA) studies conducted on ED clinical populations. Methods PRISMA and PICOS criteria were used to retrieve NA studies on ED. Methodological quality was evaluated based on five criteria: variable‐selection procedure, network estimation method, stability checks, topological overlap checks, and handling of missing data. Results Thirty‐three cross‐sectional NA studies were included. Most studies focused on populations that were female, white and, with an anorexia nervosa (AN) diagnosis. Depending on how many criteria were satisfied, 27.3% of studies (n = 9) were strictly adherent, 30.3% (n = 10) moderately adherent, 33.3% (n = 11) sufficiently adherent, and 9.1% (n = 3) poorly adherent. Missing topological overlap checks and not reporting missing data represented most unreported criteria, lacking, respectively, in 63.6% and 48.5% of studies. Conclusions Almost all reviewed cross‐sectional NA studies on ED report those methodological procedures (variable‐selection procedure, network estimation method, stability checks) necessary for a network study to provide reliable results. Nonetheless these minimum reporting data require further improvement. Moreover, elements closely related to the validity of an NA study (controls for topological overlap and management of missing data) are lacking in most studies. Recommendations to overcome such methodological weaknesses in future NA studies on ED are discussed together with the need to conduct NA studies with longitudinal design, to address diversity issues in study samples and heterogeneity of assessment tools. Public Significance The present work aims to evaluate the quality of ED NA studies to support applications of this approach in ED research. Results show that most studies adopted basic procedures to produce reliable results; however, other important procedures linked to NA study validity were mostly neglected. Network methodology in ED is extremely promising, but future studies should consistently include topological overlap control procedures and provide information on missing data.

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The psychometric network structure of mental health in eating disorder patients

Cited by 14 publications

References 69 publications

Network-based methods for psychometric data of eating disorders: A systematic review

Network-based methods for psychometric data of eating disorders: A systematic review

Network-Based Methods for Psychometric Data of Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review

Network analysis studies in patients with eating disorders: A systematic review and methodological quality assessment

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