ArticlePloS one2011
The small world of psychopathology.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 199 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
199 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Nightmares and psychiatric symptoms: A systematic review of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies.Clinical psychology review · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review of network analysis studies in eating disorders: Is time to broaden the core psychopathology to non specific symptoms.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2021Pooled it
- Coupled cognitive changes in adulthood: A meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2019Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Adolescent Cognitive-Behavioral Sleep Interventions.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2017Pooled it
- Unique and Overlapping Symptoms in Schizophrenia Spectrum and Dissociative Disorders in Relation to Models of Psychopathology: A Systematic Review.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Highways to happiness for autistic adults? Perceived causal relations among clinicians.PloS one · 2020Trial
- Trial
- Interrelationships of childhood trauma, psychiatric symptoms, neurocognition, and insomnia in chronic schizophrenia: a network perspective.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Complex dynamics in psychological data: Mapping individual symptom trajectories to group-level patterns.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Barriers to orthodontic treatment among rural children in Guangxi, China: a mixed-methods study.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Common cause versus dynamic mutualism: Insights into ADHD's common comorbidities.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Shared genetic architecture of cortical morphology and psychiatric disorders: insights from a cross-trait analyses across 180 cortical regions.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Disrupting posttrauma networks: Identifying candidate intervention targets to improve military veterans' mental health and well-being.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2026Article
- A subject-based association network defines new pediatric sleep apnea phenotypes with different odds of recovery after treatment.Computer methods and programs in biomedicine · 2026Article
- The central role of negative emotional states, rejection sensitivity and negative self-beliefs in a complex non-clinical paranoia network model.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- The Structure of Psychopathology on Reddit: Network Analysis of Mental Health Communities in Relation to the ICD Diagnostic System.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Network analysis of emotion regulation and moral injury symptoms among medical staff.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- What Does the PANSS Autism Severity Score (PAUSS) Really Measure in Patients With First Episode Psychosis? Critical Considerations.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Dense connectivity in networks of red-flag language milestones among high screen-time children.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
139 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMental disorders are highly comorbid: people having one disorder are likely to have another as well. We explain empirical comorbidity patterns based on a network model of psychiatric symptoms, derived from an analysis of symptom overlap in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). PRINCIPAL
findingsWe show that a) half of the symptoms in the DSM-IV network are connected, b) the architecture of these connections conforms to a small world structure, featuring a high degree of clustering but a short average path length, and c) distances between disorders in this structure predict empirical comorbidity rates. Network simulations of Major Depressive Episode and Generalized Anxiety Disorder show that the model faithfully reproduces empirical population statistics for these disorders.
conclusionsIn the network model, mental disorders are inherently complex. This explains the limited successes of genetic, neuroscientific, and etiological approaches to unravel their causes. We outline a psychosystems approach to investigate the structure and dynamics of mental disorders.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.