Network Structure of Interpersonal Sensitivity in Patients With Mood Disorders: A Network Analysis

Article information

Psychiatry Investig. 2024;21(9):1016-1024
Publication date (electronic) : 2024 September 3
doi : https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2023.0411
1Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
2Department of Psychology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea
3Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Correspondence: Woojae Myung, MD, PhD Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 82 Gumi-ro 173beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam 13620, Republic of Korea Tel: +82-31-787-7430, Fax: +82-31-787-4058, E-mail: wmyung@snu.ac.kr
Correspondence: Jungkyu Park, PhD Department of Psychology, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea Tel: +82-53-950-7176, Fax: +82-53-950-5243, E-mail: jkp@knu.ac.kr
Received 2023 November 22; Revised 2024 March 31; Accepted 2024 July 1.

Abstract

Objective

Interpersonal sensitivity, characterized by a heightened awareness of others’ behavior and emotions, is linked to mood disorders. However, current literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of how some items of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) interrelate and contribute to the overall construct. This study constructed a network for interpersonal sensitivity symptomatology to identify core IPSM items in patients with mood disorders.

Methods

The IPSM, a 36-item self-report scale, was utilized to evaluate interpersonal sensitivity symptoms in 837 participants (major depressive disorder [MDD], n=265; bipolar I disorder [BD I], n=126; and bipolar II disorder [BD II], n=446). We performed exploratory graph analysis, employing regularized partial correlation models to estimate the network structure. Centrality analysis identified core IPSM symptoms for each mood disorder group. Network comparison tests assessed structural differences between the MDD and BD subgroups.

Results

Network analysis detected five communities. Item 10 (“I worry about being criticized for things that I have said or done”) showed the highest value in strength. Multiple items on “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem” showed high strength centrality. Network structure invariance and global strength invariance test results indicated no significant differences between the MDD and BD subgroups.

Conclusion

Our findings emphasize the importance of addressing “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem” in the IPSM network among mood disorder patients based on core items of the network. Additionally, targeted treatments and comprehensive strategies in this aspect could be crucial for managing mood disorders.

INTRODUCTION

Interpersonal sensitivity is defined as having a heightened awareness and response to the feelings, actions, or criticism of others, often leading to individual distress. This can exacerbate social difficulties and contribute to the development of various mental health conditions [1-3]. Moreover, it is associated with a heightened risk of mood disorders [4]. The Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM), a validated tool, has been employed to measure interpersonal sensitivity. A correlation was observed between higher IPSM scores and poorer outcomes of depressive episodes [5], and a study indicated a relationship between higher IPSM scores and treatment-resistant depression in individuals compared to the remission group [6]. Additionally, individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder were more likely to return to work after a period of sick leave when they had lower interpersonal sensitivity [7]. While prior research indicates mood states can influence interpersonal sensitivity, the reverse can also be true, with interpersonal sensitivity impacting the course of mood disorders.

However, our understanding of interpersonal sensitivity remains incomplete, particularly regarding how its different symptoms interact in individuals with mood disorders. Traditional methodologies examine variables in isolation, thereby neglecting the intricate web of connections among symptoms. The network theory of psychiatric disorders, which views psychiatric disorders as interconnected networks of causally interacting symptoms, has gained attention [8]. The use of network analysis as an analytical tool in psychopathology research has rapidly expanded [9]. Through network analysis, it is possible to identify the core symptoms that strongly affect other symptoms [10,11]. This approach holds promise for guiding and assessing therapeutic interventions, opening up possibilities for more targeted and effective treatments [10].

We conducted a network analysis the IPSM to comprehend interpersonal sensitivity in patients with mood disorders. The objectives were to 1) explore the network structure of interpersonal sensitivity in patients with mood disorders (major depressive disorder [MDD], bipolar I disorder [BD I], and bipolar II disorder [BD II]) and 2) identify the central symptoms of interpersonal sensitivity.

METHODS

Participants

A total of 837 participants (MDD, n=265; BD I, n=126; BD II, n=446) were included in this cross-sectional study conducted between July 2013 and February 2021. The patient group was recruited from the mood disorder clinic of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

Data including age, sex, and diagnosis of psychiatric disorders were collected, and all participants in the patient group were diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition [12] criteria. Diagnoses were confirmed by board-certified psychiatrists (THH and WM) based on the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview [13] or review of case records.

The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (B-2205-756-111). Data were acquired by reviewing patients’ medical records; therefore, patient consent was not required.

Clinical instrument: IPSM

The IPSM [2], a validated 36-item self-report checklist, evaluates interpersonal sensitivity, a psychosocial factor that can contribute to depression [14,15]. The questionnaire is completed on a 4-point Likert scale, with 1=very unlike me, 2=moderately unlike me, 3=moderately like me, and 4=very like me. The total score ranges from 36 to 144, with higher scores indicating greater interpersonal sensitivity. In our study, we used the Korean version of the IPSM, validated in 2013, with robust internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.73–0.83, 0.94) and test-retest reliability (coefficients: 0.80–0.94) [14]. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was excellent in this study (McDonald’s ω=0.93). However, because the patient sample’s nature limited repeated measures, a test-retest analysis was not conducted.

Statistical analysis

Network estimation and community clustering

We constructed a network of patients with mood disorders consisting of 36 nodes representing each of the 36 IPSM items. The edges in the networks are undirected and reflect the Spearman’s correlation between the two nodes. The networks were visualized using a Gaussian graphical model, which can accommodate ordinal as well as continuous data [16]. The Gaussian graphical model has advantages in visualizing and identifying the centrality of a certain node in the network. To avoid network complexity, which induces spurious relationships and causes problems in network interpretation and replication, the graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (glasso) [17] with the extended Bayesian information criterion model [18] is utilized when building networks. The introduction of this model elicits a shrinkage of weak associations and pseudo-edges between nodes, thereby constructing a parsimonious network [18]. The package glasso (version 1.11) was used to implement such regularization [19,20]. Additionally, the qgraph package (version 1.92) [21] was selected for visualization of a network and its centrality, and the bootnet package (version 4.1) was utilized to test network stability [22]. Moreover, to estimate the number of dimensions and identify communities, we used the relatively recent exploratory graph analysis (EGA) technique which implements the Walktrap algorithm [23]. This method is based on graphical lasso with the regularization parameter specified via the extended Bayesian information criterion, and has been found to outperform typical factor-analytic methods [24]. We conducted an additional bootstrap EGA (bootEGA) involving 1,000 bootstrapped samples to assess the stability of the items and the dimensional structure of the network. These analyses were performed using the EGA and bootEGA functions in the EGAnet package [25].

Node centrality

Several centrality indices are used to measure a node’s importance in networks: 1) node strength, which assesses the sum of weighted connections with other nodes, indicating strong and direct connections [26], 2) betweenness, reflecting the node’s ability to connect to other nodes through the shortest path [26], and 3) closeness, quantifying the node’s relationship considering indirect connections and shorter average distance to all other nodes for higher values [26]. All measures are reported as standardized z-scores [26].

Network accuracy and stability

To evaluate the precision of the network inferences, we performed a nonparametric bootstrap test with 2,000 samples to examine the edge-weight accuracy with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Additionally, the stability of the centrality indices was investigated using a case-dropping subset bootstrap test to estimate the correlation stability coefficient. This coefficient indicates the maximum proportion of cases that can be excluded while ensuring a 0.7 or higher correlation between the original centrality indices and the centrality of networks based on subsets with a 95% probability [22]. If removing a significant number of samples from the original data does not result in a significant decrease in the centrality index of the node, the network is considered stable, preferably with a value greater than 0.50 [22]. Additionally, edge weight and node centrality index differences were examined to test whether they differed significantly from each other.

Network comparison test

The network comparison test (NCT), a two-tailed permutation test, was conducted to investigate the differences in network structure between the sub-diagnosis groups (i.e., MDD and bipolar disorder) [26,27]. We evaluated differences between the two networks using several invariance measures, including network structure invariance and global strength invariance [27,28]. We conducted the NCT by permutating 1,000 times at a significance level of 0.05. All statistical analyses were performed using the R software version 4.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria).

RESULTS

Clinical and demographic characteristics

Table 1 presents the participants’ demographic characteristics. The mean age for the patient group was 36.23 years (standard deviation=11.56). The patient group consisted of 232 men (27.7%) and 605 women (72.3%). The scores and mean differences of the IPSM items among the different mood disorder subgroups are shown in Table 2.

Clinical and demographic characteristics of participants

Analysis of interpersonal sensitivity measure scores by item across the patient group and the mood disorder subgroups

Network estimation and community clustering

Figure 1 presents the estimated networks, including the color-coded clusters of the patient group. Using the EGA method, the patient group network was composed of five communities (1: Separation Anxiety, 2: Apprehension about Others’ Reactions, 3: Low Self-Esteem, 4: Timidity, and 5: Interpersonal Worry/Dependency). Supplementary Table 1 shows the grouping of items, indicating which items are part of each community. The bootstrapping procedure using bootEGA function reveals that the five-community solution was most frequently replicated, occurring in 51.8% of cases (518 out of 1,000 samples). Additionally, about 25% of the IPSM items exhibited low replication level (Supplementary Figure 1). This result is consistent with previous studies on the IPSM using factor analysis, which also showed complex factor loading patterns (Supplementary Figure 2). The mean node predictability was 0.458, whereas the mean edge weight for the patient group was 0.022.

Figure 1.

Network configuration of the mood disorder patient group.

Centrality analysis and edge weights

Figure 2 presents the centrality indices of the IPSM network. Item 10 (“I worry about being criticized for things that I have said or done”) showed the highest value in strength. Regarding strength centrality, no significant difference was found with item 10 and items 5 (“If others knew the real me, they would not like me”), 25 (“I always expect criticism”), 26 (“I can never be really sure if someone is pleased with me”), 30 (“I worry about what others think of me”), 36 (“I care about what people feel about me”), 31 (“I do not feel happy unless people I know admire me”), and 33 (“I worry about hurting others’ feelings”) through the bootstrapped difference test (Supplementary Figure 3). Item 19 (“I fear that my feelings will overwhelm people”) had the highest betweenness score, and item 30 (“I worry about what others think of me”) was ranked first for closeness centrality. Supplementary Table 2 provides the IPSM items along with their corresponding centrality parameters (i.e., strength, betweenness, and closeness).

Figure 2.

A centrality plot of the mood disorder patient group. The x-axis represents each value of standardized z-score of central indices, and the y-axis indicates IPSM item number.

Furthermore, when examining the differences in strength centrality within the diagnosis groups (MDD and BD), we found that item 25 (“I always expect criticism”) had the highest value in the MDD group, but it did not significantly differ from 14 other items (i.e., 3, 5, 9, 10, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36), including item 10, which showed the highest network centrality of all subjects. In contrast, item 10 (“I worry about being criticized for things that I have said or done”) exhibited the highest strength centrality value in the BD group; however, it did not exhibit a significant difference with other six items (i.e., 26, 5, 31, 30, 25, 36) (Supplementary Figures 4 and 5).

In terms of edge weight, the strongest edge weight was observed between items 1 and 17 (“I feel insecure when I say goodbye to people” and “I feel anxious when I say goodbye to people”), which exhibited a significant difference when compared to other edges (Supplementary Figure 6).

Network accuracy and stability test

The network stability indices for network strength, betweenness, and closeness are shown in Supplementary Figure 7. The results revealed that strength centrality displayed a satisfactory level of stability, allowing for the removal of up to 75% of the sample while maintaining a correlation of 0.7 with an unchanging network structure compared to the original configuration. However, the betweenness and closeness centrality indices exhibited robust correlation stability coefficients only up to the elimination of 28.3% and 51.6% of the sample, respectively, suggesting that they may be less dependable measures for ensuring stability in cases of substantially smaller sample sizes.

Supplementary Figure 8 displays the results of visualizing the 95% CIs using bootstrapping samples for all edges, arranged in descending order based on their magnitudes within the IPSM networks. The comparatively slender bootstrapped CIs indicated the accuracy of the estimates.

NCT according to mood disorder diagnosis

There were no statistically significant differences in the overall strength of the networks between patients with MDD and those with BD (16.197 vs. 16.770; S=0.151, p=0.857). Additionally, the network invariance test revealed that the networks between the two groups displayed similar structures (M=0.164, p=0.660). No significant differences in strength centrality were found between the MDD and BD groups across the 36 items, apart from item 26 (“I can never be really sure if someone is pleased with me”). Within mood disorder subgroups, network invariance and global strength tests showed no significant differences. Analyses comparing MDD vs. BD I, MDD vs. BD II, and BD I vs. BD II are provided in Supplementary Material

DISCUSSION

We conducted a network analysis of the IPSM in patients with mood disorders. Our findings revealed a network structure comprising five communities or clusters (Figure 1). Notably, item 10 (“I worry about being criticized for things that I have said or done”) emerged as the node with the highest strength centrality. Several other items also displayed high centrality and demonstrated no significant difference from item 10; these were associated with “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem.” Furthermore, NCTs between patients with MDD and BD revealed no major differences, underscoring the consistency of centrality patterns across these mood disorders. Our study contributes to the understanding of the use of the IPSM for people with mood disorders and offers valuable insights into therapeutic strategies targeting these specific symptoms.

In network analysis, central symptoms act as focal points that trigger the activation of adjacent symptoms [10]. Our network analysis revealed that item 10 was the node with the highest strength centrality, consistent across the diagnostic categories of MDD and BD. Additionally, several other items related to “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem” displayed high centrality in the network. Our findings suggest that focused interventions for these core symptoms may be essential to reduce interpersonal sensitivity in mood disorders [10]. Mental health professionals may consider implementing cognitive–behavioral approaches to help patients manage sensitivity to criticism and negative self-evaluation [29]. This supports the inclusion of specific approaches, such as positive self-affirmation and cognitive restructuring, within treatment protocols to improve patient outcomes [30]. Intervention programs such as dialectical behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy have already integrated elements focused on addressing the interpersonal challenges experienced by individuals with mood disorders, and numerous studies have validated their effectiveness [31-33]. In addition to these programs, further research is necessary to investigate whether interventions that incorporate the aspects highlighted in this study, specifically the core symptoms identified within the categories of “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem”, could lead to more effective approaches. Furthermore, given that interpersonal sensitivity is associated with treatment outcomes in mood disorders [4], our findings suggest that targeted interventions for this core symptom could be pivotal not only in reducing interpersonal sensitivity but also in enhancing the overall treatment outcomes of mood disorders.

We identified five distinct communities within the IPSM network. Previous factor analytic methods to classify interpersonal sensitivity questionnaires have yielded varying results, grouping items into either five or three factors (Supplementary Figure 2). Moreover, bootEGA results (Supplementary Figure 1) indicated the classifications of items lacked robustness, underscoring the IPSM items’ close interrelations and the challenge of categorizing them into specific symptom clusters. Despite these challenges, EGA uncovered a more streamlined and consistent pattern compared to methods such as Walktrap and Spinglass (Supplementary Figure 2). The process of naming the communities grouped by EGA involved assessing the congruence between IPSM items within identified clusters and those associated with factors from earlier research. Where there was a significant overlap, we adopted the names of established factors. In cases of unique clusters, names were assigned based on shared item traits. This deliberative process, conducted in consultation with two psychiatrists (YK and WM) and two psychologists (HSK and JP), led to the current cluster names as detailed in Figure 1 and Supplementary Table 1.

Compared to prior research, in the EGA, items 1 and 17 assigned to the “Separation Anxiety” cluster were consistently categorized under the same factor in Boyce and Parker [2] and You et al.’s [34] studies. Moreover, the “Timidity” cluster included four items that partially corresponded with the “Timidity” factor in these studies, sharing three items [2,34]. The “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” cluster, with 11 items, aligned with eight items from the “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” factor in Harb et al.’s [35] and Doğan and Sapmaz’s [36] three-factor models, supporting the validity of the five-factor model and incorporating aspects of the three-factor model. However, the “Apprehension about Others’ Reaction” cluster did not show as consistent a correspondence with previous research, indicating a composition from a wider set of characteristics that merited its own classification. This variability in item grouping could result from sociocultural and demographic differences among study populations or methodological variances. Overall, the EGA findings closely paralleled those in Lee et al.’s [14] study. Notably, seven of the nine items in our EGA’s “Low Self-Esteem” cluster coincided with Lee et al.’s [14] “Low self confidence” factor, and most items in the “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” cluster were also present in Lee et al.’s [14] “Interpersonal awareness” and “Interpersonal vulnerability” factors. Except for item 32, all items in our EGA’s “Separation Anxiety” and “Timidity” clusters were included in Lee et al.’s [14] “Lack of assertiveness/separation anxiety” factor. These similarities likely reflect shared cultural and societal contexts, while the observed discrepancies may indicate differences in demographic characteristics, such as gender distribution and clinical profiles—Lee et al.’s study [14] predominantly involved healthy male controls, in contrast to this study’s focus on mostly female mood disorder patients. Despite clustering diversity, EGA extends beyond traditional factor analysis by pinpointing key clusters with central nodes through network analysis, offering valuable clinical insights for targeting “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency” and “Low Self-Esteem.”

In the NCT analysis, no significant differences were observed in terms of the overall network strength or underlying structure between the MDD and BD groups. Furthermore, items with high network strength appeared similarly across both mood disorder categories. Additional subgroup analyses, specifically MDD vs. BD II, MDD vs. BD I, and BD I vs. BD II, reinforced these findings, revealing no significant differences in these key network parameters. These consistent patterns in the IPSM network across diagnoses suggest that the fundamental mechanisms affecting interpersonal sensitivity are similar within patient mood disorder groups. This consistency implies that interventions aimed at addressing interpersonal sensitivity may possess cross-diagnostic utility and potential efficacy in treating both MDD and BD.

Previous studies have mainly compared IPSM scores between those with depressive episodes and healthy individuals [2], focused on social anxiety disorder patients [35], or non-clinical groups [14]. These studies have not provided evidence for differing factor characteristics across mood disorder diagnoses. While mood lability and irritability are key symptoms linking unipolar to bipolar transitions among adolescents via network analysis [37], network studies on interpersonal traits in mood disorders remain unreported to date. The lack of statistically significant differences in network structures between MDD and BD in our study suggest that IPSM item correlations and core symptom variability might be minimal between mood disorders. The differences between mood disorders may not lie as much in the structure of the network but potentially in the severity of interpersonal sensitivity. Referring to Table 2, certain items showed statistically higher scores in BD II over MDD, and in BD II over BD I. These similar structures across mood disorders suggest that clinically recognizing potential differences in severity of interpersonal sensitivity might be more crucial than distinctions in therapeutic approaches between MDD and BD.

Our study has several limitations. First, the cross-sectional design precluded us from establishing direct causality between interventions targeting core symptoms and the comprehensive alleviation of interpersonal sensitivity symptoms. Future studies employing longitudinal or randomized controlled trial designs will be essential to address this issue. Second, the results may vary depending on the state of a patient’s mood disorder. Although interpersonal sensitivity is generally considered a stable personality trait, it may also act as a state-dependent measure subject to fluctuations based on the course of the illness and the patient’s current condition. Third, our study was conducted in tertiary healthcare settings in East Asia, which could limit the generalizability of the findings to other populations [9,38,39]. Fourth, although our study had an adequate sample size, a larger sample could yield more statistically significant NCT results. Despite these limitations, this study is valuable in elucidating the structure and core symptoms of interpersonal sensitivity in mood disorders through network analysis.

In conclusion, our findings indicated that “Interpersonal Worry/Dependency and “Low Self-Esteem” emerged as prominent features in the IPSM network for patients with mood disorders. Further research is needed to investigate whether such interventions have a positive impact on the course or outcomes of mood disorders.

Supplementary Materials

The Supplement is available with this article at https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2023.0411.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Results of the network invariance tests among mood disorder subgroups

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Material-1.pdf
Supplementary Table 1.

Community detection of the mood disorder patient group derived by exploratory graph analysis

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Table-1.pdf
Supplementary Table 2.

Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure items and corresponding centrality parameters in the mood disorder patient group

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Table-2.pdf
Supplementary Figure 1.

Replication of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure items for cluster formation by the bootstrap exploratory graph analysis. The bootstrap exploratory graph analysis identified five distinct communities within the mood disorder patient group. 29 items demonstrated remarkable consistency by clustering together in the same community in all 1,000 permutations, underscoring their strong and stable association. Conversely, 7 items showed variability, with less than a 75% probability of remaining together, indicating less consistency in their community placement. In the analysis, item 18 was categorized under ‘Interpersonal Worry/Dependency’ in the EGA, yet in the bootEGA, it was associated with ‘Low Self-Esteem’ in 59% of the 1,000 bootstrap iterations. There were no other community changes observed for the remaining items. There is no standard for structural consistency values for “acceptable,” [1] but generally 0.75 or higher value is regarded as satisfactory level [1-3]. One point to note is that the groups labeled red (1), blue (2), green (3), orange (4), and yellow (5) in Supplementary Figure 1 correspond to clusters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Figure 1 and Supplementary Table 1. The same community names and colors are also applied in Supplementary Figure 2. The same shades of color applied to community names in Supplementary Figure 1 are also used for the corresponding communities in Supplementary Figure 2.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-1.pdf
Supplementary Figure 2.

Comparison of factor analytic methods and cluster formation methods in network analysis. This figure illustrates the color-coded factor analysis results from five studies, highlighting the consistency and variation in identified factors. Boyce and Parker [1] and You et al. [2] identified five factors (red: Separation Anxiety, blue: Need for Approval, green: Fragile Inner Self, yellow: Interpersonal Awareness, orange: Timidity), while Lee et al. [3] found a similar pattern but with a unique factor (red: Lack of Assertiveness/Separation Anxiety, blue: Need for Approval, green: Low Self-Confidence, yellow: Interpersonal Awareness, light green: Interpersonal Vulnerability). Harb et al. [4] and Doğan and Sapmaz [5] focused on three core factors (red: Unassertive Interpersonal Behavior, green: Low Self-Esteem, yellow: Interpersonal Worry/Dependency), with non-shaded cells indicating no factor association. Additionally, the application of EGA alongside the Walktrap and Spinglass algorithms to patients with mood disorder data yielded clusters of 5, 16, and 6, respectively. Using EGA, we categorized clusters as red (Separation Anxiety, cluster 1), blue (Apprehension about Others’ Reactions, cluster 2), green (Low Self-Esteem, cluster 3), orange (Timidity, cluster 4), and yellow (Interpersonal Worry/Dependency, cluster 5) across Figure 1, Supplementary Figure 1, and Supplementary Table 1. This EGA classification provided a simpler structure that still captures the dimensional similarities of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure items consistent with previous factor analyses. EGA, exploratory graph analysis.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-2.pdf
Supplementary Figure 3.

A strength centrality difference plot for the mood disorder patient group. Supplementary Figure 3 depicts strength difference plots for the mood disorder patient group. The top rows represents the nodes which shows the strongest strength in the respective network model, followed by the subsequent rows organized in descending order. The diagonal alignment indicates the strength of the corresponding node, illustrating the significance of the differences between nodes. Black boxes represent significant differences, while gray boxes indicate no difference.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-3.pdf
Supplementary Figure 4.

A strength centrality difference plot for the major depressive disorder subgroup. Supplementary Figure 4 depicts strength difference plots for the major depressive disorder patient group. The top rows represents the nodes which shows the strongest strength in the respective network model, followed by the subsequent rows organized in descending order. The diagonal alignment indicates the strength of the corresponding node, illustrating the significance of the differences between nodes. Black boxes represent significant differences, while gray boxes indicate no difference.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-4.pdf
Supplementary Figure 5.

A strength centrality difference plot for the bipolar disorder subgroup. Supplementary Figure 5 depicts strength difference plots for the bipolar disorder patient group. The top rows represents the nodes which shows the strongest strength in the respective network model, followed by the subsequent rows organized in descending order. The diagonal alignment indicates the strength of the corresponding node, illustrating the significance of the differences between nodes. Black boxes represent significant differences, while gray boxes indicate no difference.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-5.pdf
Supplementary Figure 6.

A plot of bootstrapped difference test on the non-zero edge-weights of the patient group. Supplementary Figure 6 illustrates the edge weight difference plot for the mood disorder patient group. The top row represents the strongest edge-weight in the respective network model, followed by the subsequent rows arranged in descending order. Diagonal lines depict the color of the edge corresponding to the direction and strength of the association (blue: positive, red: negative correlation). Non-significant differences between the corresponding edges are depicted by the gray box, while significant differences are highlighted with a black box.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-6.pdf
Supplementary Figure 7.

A plot of stability of centrality measures in the mood disorder patient group. Supplementary Figure 7 shows bootstrapped centrality stability in the mood patient group. On the x-axis, it shows the percentage of cases sampled from the original dataset at each step. The y-axis represents the average correlation between the centrality indices obtained from the original network and those calculated from the networks after removing increasing percentages of cases. The lines represent the correlations for strength, betweenness and closeness, while the shaded areas indicate the 95% confidence intervals.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-7.pdf
Supplementary Figure 8.

A plot of edge-weight accuracy with 95% confidence intervals in the mood patient. Supplementary Figure 8 illustrates the accuracy of estimating edge weights and their corresponding 95% CIs using the bootstrapping method. The red line represents the sample edge weights arranged in ascending order, while the gray areas depict the 95% CIs determined through bootstrapping. CIs, confidence intervals.

pi-2023-0411-Supplementary-Fig-8.pdf

Notes

Availability of Data and Material

The datasets generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: Hyo Shin Kang, Jungkyu Park, Woojae Myung. Data curation: Daseul Lee, Hyeona Yu, Yoonjeong Jang, Joohyun Yoon. Funding acquisition: Woojae Myung. Investigation: Yuna Kim, Hyo Shin Kang, Jakyung Lee, Daseul Lee, Hyeona Yu, Yoonjeong Jang, Joohyun Yoon, Tae Hyon Ha, Jungkyu Park, Woojae Myung. Supervision: Hyo Shin Kang, Jungkyu Park, Woojae Myung. Statistical analysis: Yuna Kim, Jakyung Lee, Jungkyu Park, Woojae Myung. Writing—original draft: Yuna Kim, Junwoo Jang. Writing—review & editing: all authors

Funding Statement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea Grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT, RS-2024- 00335261 and NRF-2021R1A2C4001779; WM).This research was also supported by a Korea Medical Device Development Fund grant funded by the Korean government (the Ministry of Science and ICT; the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy; the Ministry of Health & Welfare; the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) (Project Number NTIS 9991006915, KMDF_PR_20200901_0250). The funding body played no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding authors had full access to all data in this study and had the final responsibility for the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Acknowledgements

None

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Article information Continued

Figure 1.

Network configuration of the mood disorder patient group.

Figure 2.

A centrality plot of the mood disorder patient group. The x-axis represents each value of standardized z-score of central indices, and the y-axis indicates IPSM item number.

Table 1.

Clinical and demographic characteristics of participants

All patients (N=837) MDD (N=265) BD II (N=446) BD I (N=126)
Age (yr) 36.23±11.56 38.19±12.61 32.30±11.49 36.25±11.53
Sex
 Male 232 (27.7) 65 (24.5) 122 (27.4) 45 (35.7)
 Female 605 (72.3) 200 (75.5) 324 (72.6) 81 (64.3)

MDD, major depressive disorder; BD II, bipolar II disorder; BD I, bipolar I disorder

Table 2.

Analysis of interpersonal sensitivity measure scores by item across the patient group and the mood disorder subgroups

Interpersonal Sensivitiy Measure items Mean (standard deviation)
Mean difference
Patient group (N=837) MDD (N=265) BD I (N=126) BD II (N=446) MDD vs. BD I MDD vs. BD II BD I vs. BD II
1 I feel insecure when I say goodbye to people 2.23 (0.95) 2.13 (0.90) 2.22 (0.98) 2.29 (0.96) -0.09 -0.16* -0.07
2 I worry about the effect I have on other people 2.73 (0.96) 2.53 (0.97) 2.59 (0.96) 2.89 (0.92) -0.06 -0.36*** -0.30**
3 I avoid saying what I think for fear of being rejected 2.66 (0.96) 2.58 (0.95) 2.38 (0.96) 2.79 (0.93) 0.20 -0.21 -0.41***
4 I feel uneasy meeting new people 2.67 (0.98) 2.72 (0.94) 2.26 (1.01) 2.75 (0.97) 0.46*** -0.03** -0.49***
5 If others knew the real me, they would not like me 2.50 (1.05) 2.27 (1.03) 2.17 (1.03) 2.73 (1.02) 0.10 -0.46*** -0.56***
6 I feel secure when I am in a close relationship 3.09 (0.85) 3.10 (0.82) 3.24 (0.74) 3.04 (0.89) -0.14 0.06 0.20*
7 I do not get angry with people for fear that I may hurt them 2.84 (0.91) 2.89 (0.83) 2.62 (0.96) 2.88 (0.92) 0.27** 0.01 -0.26**
8 After a fight with a friend, I feel uncomfortable until I have made peace 3.41 (0.76) 3.37 (0.80) 3.17 (0.87) 3.49 (0.68) 0.20* -0.12* -0.32***
9 I am always aware of how other people feel 3.21 (0.85) 3.10 (0.89) 3.00 (0.91) 3.33 (0.78) 0.10 -0.23*** -0.33***
10 I worry about being criticized for things that I have said or done 3.08 (0.89) 2.92 (0.90) 2.82 (0.95) 3.25 (0.84) 0.10 -0.33*** -0.43***
11 I always notice if someone doesn’t respond to me 3.00 (0.89) 2.92 (0.82) 2.77 (1.00) 3.11 (0.88) 0.15 -0.19* -0.34***
12 I worry about losing someone close to me 2.89 (0.96) 2.8 2(0.98) 2.69 (1.01) 2.99 (0.92) 0.13 -0.17* -0.30**
13 I feel that people generally like me 2.55 (0.76) 2.55 (0.73) 2.75 (0.76) 2.49 (0.77) -0.20* 0.06 0.26**
14 I will do something I do not want to do rather than offend or upset someone 2.19 (0.89) 2.22 (0.85) 2.19 (0.99) 2.18 (0.87) 0.03 0.04 0.01
15 I can only believe that something I have done is good when someone tells me it is 2.22 (0.91) 2.17 (0.89) 2.00 (0.91) 2.30 (0.92) 0.17 -0.13 -0.30**
16 I will go out of my way to please someone I am close to 2.68 (0.88) 2.62 (0.85) 2.63 (0.87) 2.73 (0.89) -0.01 -0.11 -0.10
17 I feel anxious when I say goodbye to people 2.15 (0.94) 1.97 (0.85) 2.13 (0.99) 2.26 (0.96) -0.16 -0.29*** -0.13
18 I feel happy when someone compliments me 3.37 (0.72) 3.20 (0.78) 3.49 (0.60) 3.44 (0.69) -0.29*** -0.24*** 0.05
19 I fear that my feelings will overwhelm people 2.75 (0.88) 2.73 (0.87) 2.54 (0.95) 2.81 (0.87) 0.19 -0.08 -0.27**
20 I can make other people feel happy 2.59 (0.77) 2.54 (0.76) 2.85 (0.72) 2.56 (0.78) -0.31*** -0.02 0.29***
21 I find it hard to get angry with people 2.80 (0.96) 2.83 (0.94) 2.60 (0.91) 2.84 (0.97) 0.23* -0.01 -0.24**
22 I worry about criticizing other people 2.76 (0.89) 2.77 (0.89) 2.57 (0.93) 2.81 (0.87) 0.20* -0.04 -0.24**
23 If someone is critical of something I do, I feel bad 3.42 (0.68) 3.32 (0.73) 3.36 (0.67) 3.49 (0.65) -0.04 -0.17* -0.13*
24 If other people knew what I am really like, they would think less of me 2.48 (0.98) 2.35 (0.98) 2.24 (0.90) 2.62 (0.98) 0.11 -0.27** -0.38***
25 I always expect criticism 2.11 (0.95) 1.91 (0.91) 1.85 (0.89) 2.31 (0.95) 0.06 -0.40*** -0.46***
26 I can never be really sure if someone is pleased with me 2.51 (0.91) 2.38 (0.90) 2.30 (0.87) 2.64 (0.90) 0.08 -0.26** -0.34***
27 I do not like people to really know me 1.97 (0.91) 1.82 (0.85) 1.79 (0.89) 2.11 (0.93) 0.03 -0.29*** -0.32***
28 If someone upsets me, I am not able to put it easily out of my mind 3.20 (0.83) 3.14 (0.81) 2.89 (0.87) 3.32 (0.80) 0.25** -0.18* -0.43***
29 I feel others do not understand me 2.79 (0.92) 2.64 (0.92) 2.52 (1.03) 2.96 (0.85) 0.12 -0.32*** -0.44***
30 I worry about what others think of me 2.89 (0.98) 2.67 (1.03) 2.68 (1.01) 3.09 (0.90) -0.01 -0.42*** -0.41***
31 I do not feel happy unless people I know admire me 2.72 (0.93) 2.49 (0.95) 2.67 (0.99) 2.87 (0.87) -0.18 -0.38*** -0.20*
32 I am never rude to anyone 2.75 (0.96) 2.78 (0.96) 2.62 (1.02) 2.77 (0.94) 0.16 0.01 -0.15
33 I worry about hurting the feelings of other people 3.05 (0.82) 2.99 (0.82) 2.81 (0.96) 3.15 (0.75) 0.18 -0.16* -0.34***
34 I feel hurt when someone is angry with me 3.33 (0.75) 3.24 (0.78) 3.15 (0.80) 3.43 (0.71) 0.09 -0.19** -0.28***
35 My value as a person depends enormously on what others think of me 2.70 (0.93) 2.54 (0.95) 2.48 (1.02) 2.87 (0.87) 0.06 -0.33*** -0.39***
36 I care about what people feel about me 3.10 (0.84) 2.89 (0.90) 3.03 (0.86) 3.25 (0.77) -0.14 -0.36*** -0.22*
*

p<0.05;

**

p<0.01;

***

p<0.001.

MDD, major depressive disorder; BD II, bipolar II disorder; BD I, bipolar I disorder