Perceived Causal Problem Networks: Reliability, Central Problems, and Clinical Utility for Depression

Abstract

Personalized case conceptualization is often regarded as a prerequisite for treatment success in psychotherapy for patients with comorbidity. This article presents Perceived Causal Networks, a novel method in which patients rate perceived causal relations among behavioral and emotional problems. First, 231 respondents screening positive for depression completed an online Perceived Causal Networks questionnaire. Median completion time (including repeat items to assess immediate test–retest reliability) was 22.7 minutes, and centrality measures showed excellent immediate test–retest reliability. Networks were highly idiosyncratic, but worrying and ruminating were the most central items for a third of respondents. Second, 50 psychotherapists rated the clinical utility of Perceived Causal Networks visualizations. Ninety-six percent rated the networks as clinically useful, and the information in the individual visualizations was judged to contain 47% of the information typically collected during a psychotherapy assessment phase. Future studies should individualize networks further and evaluate the validity of perceived causal relations.

Temporal dynamics of depressive symptomatology: An idiographic time series analysis applying network models to patients with depressive disorders

“…Frumkin et al, 2021). Models that employ purely data-driven approaches based on data of a single individual can have several limitations, as they can ignore clinical judgment and can be hard to estimate and interpret properly (Burger et al, 2021;Klintwall et al, 2021). Several ideas might be able to counteract these issues by integrating clinical knowledge (Burger et al, 2021) or information from other individuals into individual networks (Beltz et al, 2016;Mansueto et al, 2022).…”

The Content of Personalised Network-Based Case Formulations

“…These results clearly demonstrate the importance of idiographic case formulations, as they contain an immense richness which is not present in standardized diagnostics (e.g. DSM-V), prototype formulations based on theories of specific mental disorders, symptom networks , or perceived causal problem networks (Frewen et al, 2012;Klintwall et al, 2021).…”

A clinical PREMISE for personalized models: Toward a formal integration of case formulations and statistical networks.

“…Prior literature focused on similar approaches to eliciting perceived relationships, for instance using Perceived Causal Relations (Deserno et al, 2020; Frewen et al, 2012), and Perceived Symptom Relations (Schumacher et al, 2021). These approaches have been extended to the idiographic context, referred to as Perceived Causal Problem Networks (Klintwall et al, 2021). Furthermore, there are new approaches that use EMA data to assess relationships within functional analysis (Scholten et al, 2021).…”