Networks of Depressive Symptoms in Clinical and Student Populations: Similarities and Differences

Using network analysis, we compared the BDI-II symptom groupings (i.e., communities), the ability of individual symptoms to associate with the others (i.e., centrality), the global strength of these associations, and the bridge symptoms that connect the communities in a sample of 279 depression patients (Mage = 49.9, SDage = 11.2) and in a non-clinical sample of 327 students (BDI-II score less than 19, Mage = 21.05, SDage = 1.82). The network of patients showed higher density, three communities (i.e., cognitive, affective-vegetative, and anhedonia-low energy), with sadness as the central and the strongest bridge symptom. The network of students was less consolidated, had unstable, and uninterpretable communities, with worthlessness as the central symptom, which was the strongest bridge among the communities. This study suggests some qualitative differences between depression symptoms in clinical and non-clinical populations, which manifest in their different places in networks.