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In this chapter, we explore several important statistical models. Statistical models allow us to perform statistical inference—the process of selecting models and making predictions about the underlying distributions—based on the data we have. Many approaches exist, from the stochastic block model and its generalizations to the edge observer model, the exponential random graph model, and the graphical LASSO. As we show in this chapter, such models help us understand our data, but using them may at times be challenging, either computationally or mathematically. For example, the model must often be specified with great care, lest it seize on a drastically unexpected network property or fall victim to degeneracy. Or the model must make implausibly strong assumptions, such as conditionally independent edges, leading us to question its applicability to our problem. Or even our data may be too large for the inference method to handle efficiently. As we discuss, the search continues for better, more tractable statistical models and more efficient, more accurate inference algorithms for network data.
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is often co-morbid with depression. Using the methods of network analysis, we computed two networks that disclose the potentially causal relationships among symptoms of these two disorders in 408 adult patients with primary OCD and co-morbid depression symptoms.
Method
We examined the relationship between the symptoms constituting these syndromes by computing a (regularized) partial correlation network via the graphical LASSO procedure, and a directed acyclic graph (DAG) via a Bayesian hill-climbing algorithm.
Results
The results suggest that the degree of interference and distress associated with obsessions, and the degree of interference associated with compulsions, are the chief drivers of co-morbidity. Moreover, activation of the depression cluster appears to occur solely through distress associated with obsessions activating sadness – a key symptom that ‘bridges’ the two syndromic clusters in the DAG.
Conclusions
Bayesian analysis can expand the repertoire of network analytic approaches to psychopathology. We discuss clinical implications and limitations of our findings.
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