Comparing the centrality symptoms of major depressive disorder samples across junior high school students, senior high school students, college students and elderly adults during city lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic-A network analysis

Yanqiang Tao; Wenxin Hou; Haiqun Niu; Zijuan Ma; Zeqing Zheng; Shujian Wang; Xiangping Liu; Liang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2022.12.120

Comparing the centrality symptoms of major depressive disorder samples across junior high school students, senior high school students, college students and elderly adults during city lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic-A network analysis

J Affect Disord. 2023 Mar 1:324:190-198. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.12.120. Epub 2022 Dec 28.

Authors

Yanqiang Tao¹, Wenxin Hou¹, Haiqun Niu², Zijuan Ma³, Zeqing Zheng⁴, Shujian Wang⁵, Xiangping Liu⁶, Liang Zhang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing 100875, China.
² School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China.
³ School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China. Electronic address: mazijuan@m.scnu.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: zqzheng@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
⁵ Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: 202121061093@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
⁶ Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: 89034@bnu.edu.cn.
⁷ College Students' Mental Health Education Center, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China; College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University AT ZHUHAI, Zhuhai 519087, China. Electronic address: zhangliangpsy@neau.edu.cn.

Abstract

Introduction: Recently, in the view of network analysis, depression has been conceptualized as a complex and dynamic network model combining individual symptoms. To date, no studies have systematically examined and compared depressive symptom networks across different populations.

Methods: A total of 36,105 participants were recruited and asked to complete the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 among junior high school students, senior high school students, college students, and elderly adults who were more susceptible to depression during the COVID-19 lockdown in China. In the analysis, we applied the optimal cutoff score ≥ 8 for students and a score ≥ 6 for elderly adults to identify 5830 participants who were likely to be depressed. The index of "strength" was used to identify central symptoms in the network structure.

Results: The results showed that Sad Mood was the most central symptom among junior high school students, senior high school students, and college students, but the most central symptom in the elderly was Guilt. Among the top three central symptoms, Suicide Ideation was unique to senior high school students, while Anhedonia was most prevalent among college students. Guilt - Suicide Ideation, Anhedonia - Energy, Anhedonia - Sad Mood, and Sleep - Energy showed the strongest association among junior and senior high school students, college students, and elderly adults, respectively. NCT (i.e., Network Comparison Test) suggested that the network's global connectivity was ultimately inconsistent, but the network structure remained roughly intact.

Conclusion: In treatment, targeting central symptoms may be critical to alleviating depression.

Keywords: College students; Depression; Elderly adults; Junior high school students; Network analysis; Senior high school students.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Aged
Anhedonia
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Communicable Disease Control*
Depressive Disorder, Major* / epidemiology
Depressive Disorder, Major* / psychology
Health Surveys
Humans
Pandemics
Students / psychology
Students / statistics & numerical data
Young Adult