Using Directed Acyclic Graphs in Epidemiological Research in Psychosis: An Analysis of the Role of Bullying in Psychosis

Schizophrenia Bulletin
Giusi MoffaPaul Bebbington

Abstract

Modern psychiatric epidemiology researches complex interactions between multiple variables in large datasets. This creates difficulties for causal inference. We argue for the use of probabilistic models represented by directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). These capture the dependence structure of multiple variables and, used appropriately, allow more robust conclusions about the direction of causation. We analyzed British national survey data to assess putative mediators of the association between bullying victimization and persecutory ideation. We compared results using DAGs and the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) logistic regression commands in STATA. We analyzed data from the 2007 English National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity, using the equivalent 2000 survey in an instant replication. Additional details of methods and results are provided in the supplementary material. DAG analysis revealed a richer structure of relationships than could be inferred using the KHB logistic regression commands. Thus, bullying had direct effects on worry, persecutory ideation, mood instability, and drug use. Depression, sleep and anxiety lay downstream, and therefore did not mediate the link between bullying and persecutory ideation. Mediation by worry a...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 5, 2019·Journal of Trauma & Dissociation : the Official Journal of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD)·Adriano Schimmenti, Vedat Sar
Feb 20, 2019·The International Journal of Social Psychiatry·Angharad N de CatesMatthew R Broome
Dec 14, 2019·The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease·Jacqueline StowkowyJean Addington
Jul 21, 2020·Psychological Reports·Giovanni BrigantiPaul Linkowski
Mar 28, 2020·International Journal of Behavioral Medicine·Derrick SsewanyanaAmina Abubakar
Dec 12, 2018·Schizophrenia Bulletin·Jessica C BirdDaniel Freeman
Jul 8, 2020·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Sandra Fernández-LeónCristina Senín-Calderón
Mar 17, 2020·Frontiers in Veterinary Science·Gilles KratzerSonja Hartnack
Jan 13, 2021·World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)·Michael A P BloomfieldGlyn Lewis
Feb 19, 2021·International Journal of Obesity : Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity·Elisa PinedaJennifer S Mindell
Jun 22, 2020·The Lancet. Psychiatry·Daniel FreemanPaul J Harrison
Oct 24, 2020·Journal of Psychiatric Research·Emma ČernisDaniel Freeman
Sep 18, 2021·Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR·Sameer Ashaie, Nichol Castro
Nov 25, 2020·Annual Review of Clinical Psychology·Richard J McNally

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