Mental disorders as complex networks An introduction and overview of a network approach to psychopathology

Mental disorders have traditionally been conceptualized as latent variables, which impact observable symptomatology. Recent alternative approaches, however, view mental disorders as systems of mutually reinforcing symptoms, and utilize network models to analyze the structure of these symptom-symptom interactions. This paper gives an introduction to and overview of the network approach to psychopathology, as it has developed over the past years.