title: A Network Approach to Environmental Impact in Psychotic Disorder: Brief Theoretical Framework.
abstract: The spectrum of psychotic disorder represents a multifactorial and heterogeneous condition and is thought to result from a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. In the current paper, we analyze this interplay using network analysis, which has been recently proposed as a novel psychometric framework for the study of mental disorders. Using general population data, we construct network models for the relation between 3 environmental risk factors (cannabis use, developmental trauma, and urban environment), dimensional measures of psychopathology (anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobic anxiety, somatizations, and hostility), and a composite measure of psychosis expression. Results indicate the existence of specific paths between environmental factors and symptoms. These paths most often involve cannabis use. In addition, the analyses suggest that symptom networks are more strongly connected for people exposed to environmental risk factors, implying that environmental exposure may lead to less resilient symptom networks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Psychological Methods, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; isvoranu.adela@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Adela-Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Isvoranu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Psychological Methods, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
authors.forename: Denny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borsboom
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands; King's College London, King's Health Partners, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK;
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Os
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Sinan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guloksuz
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: environmental exposure; network analysis; psychosis; risk factors