Network analysis of somatic symptoms in Chinese patients with depressive disorder

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Baohua Cao¹  Yang Li¹  Zhongying Shi²  Li Chen³  Hao Zhang⁴  Shoumei Jia⁵ 

[1] Department of Nursing, Air Force Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shanxi, China;Department of Nursing, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China;Department of Nursing, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China;Medical Department, The Chinese People's Liberation Army 985th Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China;School of Nursing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China;

关键词: depression;    somatic symptoms;    network analysis;    PHQ-15;    China;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1079873

 received in 2022-10-25, accepted in 2023-02-23,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionNetwork theory conceptualizes somatic symptoms as a network of individual symptoms that are interconnected and influenced by each other. In this conceptualization, the network's central symptoms have the strongest effect on other symptoms. Clinical symptoms of patients with depressive disorders are largely determined by their sociocultural context. To our knowledge, no previous study has investigated the network structure of somatic symptoms among Chinese patients with depressive disorders. The aim of this study was to characterize the somatic symptoms network structure in patients with depressive disorders in Shanghai, China.MethodA total of 177 participants were recruited between October 2018 and June 2019. The Chinese version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 was used to assess somatic symptoms. In order to quantify the somatic symptom network structure, indicators of “closeness,” “strength,” and “betweenness” were employed as identifiers for network-central symptoms.ResultThe symptoms of “feeling your heart pound or race,” “shortness of breath,” and “back pain” had the highest centrality values, indicating that these symptoms were central to the somatic symptom networks. Feeling tired or mentally ill had the strongest positive correlation with insomnia or other sleep problems (r = 0.419), followed by chest pain and breathlessness (r = 0.334), back pain, and limb or joint pain (r = 0.318).DiscussionPsychological and neurobiological research that offers insights into somatic symptoms may focus on these central symptoms as targets for treatment and future research.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Li, Jia, Cao, Chen, Shi and Zhang.