Temporal network of experience sampling methodology identifies sleep disturbance as a central symptom in generalized anxiety disorder

A temporal network of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms could provide valuable understanding of the occurrence and maintenance of GAD. We aim to obtain an exploratory conceptualization of temporal GAD network and identify the central symptom. A sample of participants (n = 115) with elevated GAD-7 scores (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Questionnaire [GAD-7] ≥ 10) participated in an online daily diary study in which they reported their GAD symptoms based on DSM-5 diagnostic criteria (eight symptoms in total) for 50 consecutive days. We used a multilevel VAR model to obtain the temporal network. In temporal network, a lot of lagged relationships exist among GAD symptoms and these lagged relationships are all positive. All symptoms have autocorrelations and there are also some interesting feedback loops in temporal network. Sleep disturbance has the highest Out-strength centrality. This study indicates how GAD symptoms interact with each other and strengthen themselves over time, and particularly highlights the relationships between sleep disturbance and other GAD symptoms. Sleep disturbance may play an important role in the dynamic development and maintenance process of GAD. The present study may develop the knowledge of the theoretical model, diagnosis, prevention and intervention of GAD from a temporal symptoms network perspective.