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Stratification of adolescents across mental phenomena emphasizes the importance of transdiagnostic distress: a replication in two general population cohorts

Stochl, J; Jones, H; Soneson, E; Wagner, AP; Khandaker, GM; Zammit, S; Heron, J; ... Jones, PB; + view all (2022) Stratification of adolescents across mental phenomena emphasizes the importance of transdiagnostic distress: a replication in two general population cohorts. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 10.1007/s00787-021-01909-0. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Characterizing patterns of mental phenomena in epidemiological studies of adolescents can provide insight into the latent organization of psychiatric disorders. This avoids the biases of chronicity and selection inherent in clinical samples, guides models of shared aetiology within psychiatric disorders and informs the development and implementation of interventions. We applied Gaussian mixture modelling to measures of mental phenomena from two general population cohorts: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, n=3,018) and the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network (NSPN, n=2,023). We defined classes according to their patterns of both positive (e.g. wellbeing and self-esteem) and negative (e.g. depression, anxiety, psychotic experiences) phenomena. Subsequently, we characterized classes by considering the distribution of diagnoses and sex split across classes. Four well-separated classes were identified within each cohort. Classes primarily differed by overall severity of transdiagnostic distress rather than particular patterns of phenomena akin to diagnoses. Further, as overall severity of distress increased, so did within-class variability, the proportion of individuals with operational psychiatric diagnoses. These results suggest that classes of mental phenomena in the general population of adolescents may not be the same as those found in clinical samples. Classes differentiated only by overall severity support the existence of a general, transdiagnostic mental distress factor and have important implications for intervention.

Type: Article
Title: Stratification of adolescents across mental phenomena emphasizes the importance of transdiagnostic distress: a replication in two general population cohorts
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s00787-021-01909-0
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01909-0
Language: English
Additional information: © 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Psychopathology, Classification, Adolescence, Transdiagnostic approach
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10137978
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