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. 2023 Dec 22:14:1249839.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1249839. eCollection 2023.

Brooding and neuroticism are strongly interrelated manifestations of the phenome of depression

Asara Vasupanrajit #  1   2 , Michael Maes #  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9 , Ketsupar Jirakran  1   2   10 , Chavit Tunvirachaisakul  1   2   5
Affiliations

Brooding and neuroticism are strongly interrelated manifestations of the phenome of depression

Asara Vasupanrajit et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Introduction: We found that neuroticism may be identified as a subclinical manifestation of the phenome of depression, comprising depressive and anxiety symptoms, and suicidal behaviors. Rumination is positively associated with depression and neuroticism and may mediate the effects of neuroticism on depression. This study aimed to determine whether rumination or its components, including brooding or reflection, mediate the effects of neuroticism on depression or, alternatively, whether both neuroticism and rumination are manifestations of the phenome of depression.

Methods: This study recruited 74 depressed subjects and 44 healthy controls. The depression group was split into groups with high versus low brooding scores. We used partial least squares (PLS) to examine mediation effects.

Results: We found that brooding and reflection scores are significantly higher in depressed patients than in controls. Patients with higher brooding scores have increased severity of depression, anxiety, insomnia, neuroticism, and current suicidal ideation as compared with patients with lower brooding scores and controls. There is a strong positive association between rumination, and neuroticism, depression, anxiety, and lifetime and current suicidal behaviors. PLS analysis shows that brooding does not mediate the effects of neuroticism on the depression phenome because no discriminant validity could be established between neuroticism and brooding, or between neuroticism and brooding and the depression phenome. We were able to extract one validated latent vector from brooding and neuroticism, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and current suicidal behaviors.

Conclusion: Overall, this study supports the theory that rumination and neuroticism are reflective manifestations of the phenome of depression.

Keywords: affective disorders; major depression; precision psychiatry; stress; suicide.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Partial regression of current_phenome on PC_brooding (after allowing for the effects of age, sex, and education).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Partial regression of neuroticism on PC_brooding.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Partial regression of current_phenome on neuroticism.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Results of PLS analysis. Shown are the significant paths, including the path coefficients (with exact p value) of the inner model, and loadings (with p values) of the outer model. Figures in blue circles indicate explained variance. Age was entered as a single indicator (denoted as +); neuroticism, phenome, brooding, and reflection were entered as latent vectors extracted from their manifestations. IPIP, The International Personality Item Pool-NEO (IPIP-NEO); HAM-D, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; BDI-II, The Beck Depression Inventory; STAI, State Trait Anxiety Assessment; ISI, The Insomnia Severity Index; SB, suicidal behaviors; RRS, The Ruminative Response Scale.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Results of PLS analysis. Shown are the significant paths, including the path coefficients (with exact p value) of the inner model, and loadings (with p-values) of the outer model. Figures in blue circles indicate the explained variance. Age was entered as a single indicator (denoted as +); the Phenome was entered as a latent vector extracted from HAM-D, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; BDI-II, The Beck Depression Inventory; STAI, State Trait Anxiety Assessment; ISI, The Insomnia Severity Index; SB, suicidal behavior.
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