Citation

Chen C, Cao C, Fang R, Wang L, Borsboom D. BJPsych Open 2023; 10(1): e2.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Royal College of Psychiatrists)

DOI

10.1192/bjo.2023.615

PMID

38044677

Abstract

The present study investigated the psychopathological processes of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the network approach to psychopathology. The directed acyclic graph model was employed to analyse a large longitudinal data-set of Chinese children and adolescents exposed to a destructive earthquake. It was found that intrusion symptoms were first activated by trauma exposure, and subsequently activated other PTSD symptoms. The data are consistent with the idea that symptoms may form a self-sustaining dynamic network by interacting with each other to promote or maintain the chronicity of PTSD. The findings advance the current understanding about the psychopathological processes of PTSD, and inform further research and clinical practices on post-traumatic psychopathology.

Language: en

Keywords

child; directed acyclic graph; longitudinal; network approach; Post-traumatic stress disorder