Multiple comorbidities of 21 psychological disorders and relationships with psychosocial variables: a study of the online assessment and diagnostic system within a web-based population - PubMed (original) (raw)

Clinical Trial

Multiple comorbidities of 21 psychological disorders and relationships with psychosocial variables: a study of the online assessment and diagnostic system within a web-based population

Ali M Al-Asadi et al. J Med Internet Res. 2015.

Abstract

Background: While research in the area of e-mental health has received considerable attention over the last decade, there are still many areas that have not been addressed. One such area is the comorbidity of psychological disorders in a Web-based sample using online assessment and diagnostic tools, and the relationships between comorbidities and psychosocial variables.

Objective: We aimed to identify comorbidities of psychological disorders of an online sample using an online diagnostic tool. Based on diagnoses made by an automated online assessment and diagnostic system administered to a large group of online participants, multiple comorbidities (co-occurrences) of 21 psychological disorders for males and females were identified. We examined the relationships between dyadic comorbidities of anxiety and depressive disorders and the psychosocial variables sex, age, suicidal ideation, social support, and quality of life.

Methods: An online complex algorithm based on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, Text Revision, was used to assign primary and secondary diagnoses of 21 psychological disorders to 12,665 online participants. The frequency of co-occurrences of psychological disorders for males and females were calculated for all disorders. A series of hierarchical loglinear analyses were performed to examine the relationships between the dyadic comorbidities of depression and various anxiety disorders and the variables suicidal ideation, social support, quality of life, sex, and age.

Results: A 21-by-21 frequency of co-occurrences of psychological disorders matrix revealed the presence of multiple significant dyadic comorbidities for males and females. Also, for those with some of the dyadic depression and the anxiety disorders, the odds for having suicidal ideation, reporting inadequate social support, and poorer quality of life increased for those with two-disorder comorbidity than for those with only one of the same two disorders.

Conclusions: Comorbidities of several psychological disorders using an online assessment tool within a Web-based population were similar to those found in face-to-face clinics using traditional assessment tools. Results provided support for the transdiagnostic approaches and confirmed the positive relationship between comorbidity and suicidal ideation, the negative relationship between comorbidity and social support, and the negative relationship comorbidity and quality of life.

Trial registration: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN121611000704998; http://www.anzctr.org.au/trial\_view.aspx?ID=336143 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/618r3wvOG).

Keywords: age; alcohol; co-occurrences; comorbidity; drug; e-mental health; fully automated; generalized anxiety disorder; insomnia, hypersomnia, dependency; multiple comorbidities; obsessive-compulsive disorder; online; panic disorder, major depressive episode; posttraumatic stress disorder; quality of life; sex; social anxiety disorder; social support; suicidal ideation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Anxiety Online homepage image.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Sex by age for those who endorsed suicidal ideation (% frequency) and endorsed PD/A and MDE.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Sex by age for those who endorsed suicidal ideation (% frequency) and endorsed PD/A and SAD.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Kessler Ronald C, Berglund Patricia, Demler Olga, Jin Robert, Merikangas Kathleen R, Walters Ellen E. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;62(6):593–602. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kessler Ronald C, Chiu Wai Tat, Demler Olga, Merikangas Kathleen R, Walters Ellen E. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Jun;62(6):617–27. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.617. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/15939839 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Albert Umberto, Rosso Gianluca, Maina Giuseppe, Bogetto Filippo. Impact of anxiety disorder comorbidity on quality of life in euthymic bipolar disorder patients: differences between bipolar I and II subtypes. J Affect Disord. 2008 Jan;105(1-3):297–303. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2007.05.020. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schoevers Robert A, Deeg D J H, van Tilburg W, Beekman A T F. Depression and generalized anxiety disorder: co-occurrence and longitudinal patterns in elderly patients. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2005 Jan;13(1):31–9. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajgp.13.1.31. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Al-Asadi Ali M, Klein Britt, Meyer Denny. Comorbidity structure of psychological disorders in the online e-PASS data as predictors of psychosocial adjustment measures: psychological distress, adequate social support, self-confidence, quality of life, and suicidal ideation. J Med Internet Res. 2014;16(10):e248. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3591. http://www.jmir.org/2014/10/e248/ - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources