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The following is a summary of “Network analysis of caffeine use disorder, withdrawal symptoms, and psychiatric symptoms,” published in the January 2025 issue of Psychiatry by Davoudi et al.
Caffeine Use Disorder (CUD) was not formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), though studies explored its link to recognized caffeine withdrawal symptoms and limited psychiatric issues.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze the network structure of CUD and withdrawal symptoms, including their connections to psychiatric symptoms.
They included 1,228 adults (50.3% females, mean age (x̄±sd) 35.49 ± 11.70 years) who completed the CUD Questionnaire (CUDQ), caffeine withdrawal symptoms questionnaire (CWSQ), and symptom checklist-25 (SCL-25), with all estimations conducted using the Gaussian Graphical Model.
The results showed that “excessive consumption” and “role obligations” were central symptoms in the CUD network, with difficulty in concentration as the most central node in the caffeine withdrawal network, while obsessive-compulsive symptoms linked caffeine-related nodes to psychiatric symptoms.
Investigators concluded that mental health providers should have targeted specific symptoms in clinical interventions to mitigate caffeine-related issues in the general population effectively.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-025-06478-z#Abs1
