Social Anxiety Disorder as a Densely Interconnected Network of Fear and Avoidance for Social Situations
Social Anxiety Disorder as a Densely Interconnected Network of Fear and Avoidance for Social Situations
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DOI：
10.1007/s10608-017-9876-3
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发表时间：
2018-02-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
McNally, Richard J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heeren, Alexandre;McNally, Richard J.
社交焦虑障碍（SAD）的标志性症状是害怕和回避社会评价情况。然而，即使没有SAD的人有时也会害怕和避免某些社交场合，而不会发展成这种疾病。除了在数量和严重程度上的差异，不确定性比比皆是的恐惧和避免不同的人际和社会评价的情况下，组织不同的人与和没有SAD。受新的网络方法的精神病理学的启发，我们试图描述网络结构的恐惧和避免不同的社会评价的情况下，个人（n = 238）和没有SAD（n = 232）。虽然网络结构和节点中心性指标在各组之间没有差异，但SAD患者的网络比没有诊断的人更紧密地相互联系。这项研究是第一个提供证据表明，SAD可以被概念化为一个紧密相连的网络的恐惧和回避的社会情况。我们的研究结果与精神障碍的网络理论是一致的，该理论认为具有较强症状间联系的网络比具有较弱联系的类似网络更具致病性。由于先前的研究表明，整体网络连接可以预测精神障碍的病程，我们的研究结果为SAD预后的新指标奠定了基础。
The hallmark symptoms of social anxiety disorder (SAD) are fear and avoidance of social evaluative situations. Yet, even people without SAD sometimes fear and avoid certain social situations without ever developing the disorder. Apart from differences in number and severity, uncertainty abounds about how fear and avoidance of distinct interpersonal and social evaluative situations organize differently in people with and without SAD. Inspired by novel network approaches to psychopathology, we sought to characterize the network structure of fear and avoidance of distinct social evaluative situations among individuals with (n = 238) and without SAD (n = 232). Although the network structure and node centrality metrics did not differ between the groups, the network for those with SAD was more strongly interconnected than that of people free of the diagnosis. This study is the first to provide evidence that SAD can be conceptualized as a densely interconnected network of fear and avoidance of social situations. Our results are consistent with the network theory of mental disorders that regards networks with strong between-symptom connections as more pathogenic than similar networks with weaker connections. As prior studies indicated that overall network connectivity can predict the course of mental disorders, our findings set the scene for novel indicators of SAD prognosis.