JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Prevention in psychiatry provides a promising way to address the burden by mental illness. However, established approaches focus on specific diagnoses and do not address the heterogeneity and manifold potential outcomes of help-seeking populations that present at early recognition services. Conceptualizing psychopathology manifested in help-seeking populations from a network perspective of interacting symptoms allows transdiagnostic investigations beyond binary disease categories. Furthermore, modern technologies such as smartphones facilitate the application of Experience Sampling Methods (ESM).

Objective:

Therefore, the objective of the current study is a combination of ESM with network analyses in order to provide valid insights beyond established assessment instruments in a help-seeking population.

Methods:

We will examine n = 75 individuals (age 18-40 years) of the help-seeking population of the Cologne early recognition centre (FETZ). For a maximally naturalistic sample, only minimal exclusion criteria will be applied. We will collect data for 14 days utilizing a mobile application to assess ten transdiagnostic symptoms, i.e., depressive, anxious and psychotic symptoms as well as distress level. With these data, we will generate average group-level symptom networks and personalized symptom networks using a two-step multilevel vector autoregressive model. Additionally, we will explore associations between symptom networks and sociodemographic, risk and resilience factors, as well as psychosocial functioning.

Results:

The protocol was designed in February 2020 and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Cologne in October 2020 (reference number 20-1092). The protocol was reviewed and funded by the KölnFortune program in September 2020 (grant agreement number 304/2020). Data collection began in November 2020 and was completed in November 2021. Of the 258 participants who were screened, 93 (36.0%) fulfilled the inclusion critera and were willing to participate in the study. 86 participants (92.5%) completed the study. As of December 2021, data analysis has not yet started. First results are expected to be published in 2022.

Conclusions:

Our study will provide insights about feasibility and utility of ESM in a help-seeking population. Providing a first explorative phenotyping of the transdiagnostic help-seeking population, this study will contribute to innovation of early recognition in psychiatry. Results will help to pave the way for prevention and targeted early intervention in a broader patient group and thus, enable greater intended effects in alleviating the burden of psychiatric disorders.