Network Analysis of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Help-Seeking Youth: A Two-Wave Study.

Authors

Xia Hu, Ya Wang, Gui-Fang Chen

Published in

Early intervention in psychiatry. Volume 20. Issue 9. Pages e70254.

Abstract

Anxiety and depression often co-occur in youth, but the symptom-level processes driving this comorbidity remain unclear. Network theory conceptualizes mental disorders as systems of interacting symptoms. We applied a two-wave longitudinal network approach to examine depression and anxiety symptoms comorbidity in help-seeking youth (N = 836, aged 10-24).
Depression and anxiety were measured using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale and Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale respectively. We estimated Gaussian graphical models at baseline (T1) and follow-up (T2, 3-12 months later), and used a Cross-Lagged Panel Network (CLPN) model to assess predictive relations between symptoms across time.
Results revealed that symptom networks tightened even as symptoms decreased; feelings of uselessness and panic were central symptoms at both time points, poor sleep consistently served as the pivotal bridge between anxiety and depression at both baseline and follow-up, while crying spells and stomach pain emerged as early drivers of wider symptom spread.
These results suggest that intervening on these symptoms may disrupt anxiety-depression cycles. This study supports the use of network models to identify targets for early intervention in youth mental health.

PMID:
42765207
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 21 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.