A Network Perspective on the Comorbidity of Personality Disorders and Mental Disorders: An Illustration of Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Annemarie C.J. Köhne¹  Adela-Maria Isvoranu³ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht;Academic Medical Center;Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam

关键词: network theory;    comorbidity;    personality disorder;    depression;    complexity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.680805

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The comorbidity of personality disorders and mental disorders is commonly understood through three types of theoretical models: either a) personality disorders precede mental disorders, b) mental disorders precede personality disorders, c) mental disorders and personality disorders share common etiological grounds. Although these hypotheses differ with respect to their idea of causal direction, they all imply a latent variable perspective, in which it is assumed that either personality and mental disorders are latent variables that have certain causal relations [models a) and b)]; or that, as in model c), the common etiology is in fact a latent variable that causes symptomatology of both personality and mental disorders. We aim to provide another perspective on the comorbidity between personality and mental disorders, namely a network perspective. To this end, we investigated Major Depression (MD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and hypothesized that symptoms of BPD and MD could interact with one another rather than being caused by a latent variable (e.g., identity diffusion → unstable relationships → depressed mood). To illustrate this theoretical network conceptualization of the comorbidity of BPD and MD we analyzed a cross-sectional clinical dataset of 376 patients who were asked to complete the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders and the Beck Depression Inventory II. The results identify direct associations between symptoms of MD and BPD. If we take the links in this empirical network to be ‘substantive', this suggests a radical shift of our current conceptualization of the comorbidity of mental disorders and personality disorders.

【 授权许可】

CC BY