Symptom networks in childhood: a new approach for understanding the structure and development of psychiatric disorders (360G-Wellcome-204366_Z_16_Z)

Psychiatric disorders have been traditionally considered as latent dimensions or factors that are represented by a set of indicators or symptoms. However, the adequacy of this approach is being questioned because it does not account for the inter-relationships between symptoms and their dynamic causal nature. In response to this limitation researchers have recently started visualising disorders as networks of symptoms, using analytic methods akin to mapping networks of people, leading to interesting insights for classification of psychiatric disorder in adults. Given that precursors for psychiatric disorder are evident in childhood and can play an aetiological role in their emergence, we propose to investigate the network of symptoms, beginning in early childhood and observe their evolution in childhood and adolescence. We will investigate (1) symptom networks within disorder domains (e.g. depression, hyperactivity), (2) symptom networks across all domains to identify comorbidities, and (3) differences in the network based on gender, exposure to maternal depression in early childhood and between non-clinical and clinical samples. By doing so we will establish the suitability, feasibility and utility of applying such methodology to child symptom data and thereby determine if the method offers new insights into the aetiology and development of psychiatric disorder.