A Network Model of Positive Resources, Temperament, Childhood Trauma, and Comorbid Symptoms for Patient with Depressive Disorders.

Objective: Temperament, positive resources, childhood trauma, and other clinical comorbid symptoms are related to depressive symptom severity. Here, we used network analysis to examine the interrelations between these clinical factors in patients with depressive disorders.

Methods: Patients with depressive disorders (n=454) completed self-report questionnaires evaluating clinical symptoms, childhood trauma, temperament, and positive resources. To identify network pattern and the most central aspect, we performed network analysis and centrality analyses. First, we analyzed the network pattern in total participants. Second, we established two groups of those with severe depressive symptoms and those with mild depressive symptoms and compared their network patterns.

Results: Deficient optimism and depression were the central factors in the network of total participants. In the group with severe depressive symptoms, lack of social support and childhood emotional trauma showed high centrality. Deficient social support and other positive resources played central roles in the group with mild depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Network pattern of psychological factors was different between those with mild or severe depression. Lack of positive resources is an important factor in psychological processes in both mild and severe depression. However, childhood emotional trauma may play a relatively important role in patients with severe depressive symptoms.