Commentary proposes personalised symptom networks for comorbid insomnia and depression

Insomnia and depression commonly co-occur, but treatment is generally delivered through separate standardised protocols, the commentary notes. The author argues that group-level models may miss how symptoms interact within an individual over time—for example, whether night-time awakenings contribute to daytime rumination. The article proposes estimating person-specific symptom networks using intensive longitudinal assessments, such as ecological momentary assessment, potentially alongside wearable physiological data.

Under this framework, treatment ingredients or sequences could be matched to symptoms identified as influential within a patient’s network. Trials would track whether these symptoms lose influence over time, alongside conventional clinical outcomes. The author also calls for consensus on minimum reporting standards for assessment protocols and says network estimates should be treated as hypotheses for shared clinical formulation, not as diagnoses.

The article is a proposal, not a clinical study: it reports no patient sample or treatment outcomes, and says no studies have yet used idiographic networks to guide treatment for comorbid insomnia and depression. It therefore does not establish that this approach improves outcomes or support changing current practice. The work received no specific grant funding.