A behavioral comparison of male and female adults with high functioning autism spectrum conditions

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females in the general population. However, within ASC it is unclear if there are phenotypic sex differences. Testing for similarities and differences between the sexes is important not only for clinical assessment but also has implications for theories of typical sex differences and of autism. Using cognitive and behavioral measures, we investigated similarities and differences between the sexes in age- and IQ-matched adults with ASC (high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome). Of the 83 (45 males and 38 females) participants, 62 (33 males and 29 females) met Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) cut-off criteria for autism in childhood and were included in all subsequent analyses. The severity of childhood core autism symptoms did not differ between the sexes. Males and females also did not differ in self-reported empathy, systemizing, anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive traits/symptoms or mentalizing performance. However, adult females with ASC showed more lifetime sensory symptoms (p = 0.036), fewer current socio-communication difficulties (p = 0.001), and more self-reported autistic traits (p = 0.012) than males. In addition, females with ASC who also had developmental language delay had lower current performance IQ than those without developmental language delay (p<0.001), a pattern not seen in males. The absence of typical sex differences in empathizing-systemizing profiles within the autism spectrum confirms a prediction from the extreme male brain theory. Behavioral sex differences within ASC may also reflect different developmental mechanisms between males and females with ASC. We discuss the importance of the superficially better socio-communication ability in adult females with ASC in terms of why females with ASC may more often go under-recognized, and receive their diagnosis later, than males

What Twitter Profile and Posted Images Reveal About Depression and Anxiety

Previous work has found strong links between the choice of social media images and users' emotions, demographics and personality traits. In this study, we examine which attributes of profile and posted images are associated with depression and anxiety of Twitter users. We used a sample of 28,749 Facebook users to build a language prediction model of survey-reported depression and anxiety, and validated it on Twitter on a sample of 887 users who had taken anxiety and depression surveys. We then applied it to a different set of 4,132 Twitter users to impute language-based depression and anxiety labels, and extracted interpretable features of posted and profile pictures to uncover the associations with users' depression and anxiety, controlling for demographics. For depression, we find that profile pictures suppress positive emotions rather than display more negative emotions, likely because of social media self-presentation biases. They also tend to show the single face of the user (rather than show her in groups of friends), marking increased focus on the self, emblematic for depression. Posted images are dominated by grayscale and low aesthetic cohesion across a variety of image features. Profile images of anxious users are similarly marked by grayscale and low aesthetic cohesion, but less so than those of depressed users. Finally, we show that image features can be used to predict depression and anxiety, and that multitask learning that includes a joint modeling of demographics improves prediction performance. Overall, we find that the image attributes that mark depression and anxiety offer a rich lens into these conditions largely congruent with the psychological literature, and that images on Twitter allow inferences about the mental health status of users.Comment: ICWSM 201

Evaluating an online support package delivered within a disability unemployment service: study protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility study

Background Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression are known to be higher in those who are unemployed. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a recognised support for people with such problems and can improve the ability of people to get back to work.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods/design Participants with symptoms of low mood will be recruited from the disability employment service, Remploy. Participants will receive either immediate or delayed access to an online CBT-based life skills intervention, the “Living Life” package. The primary end point will be at 3 months when the delayed group will be offered the intervention. This feasibility study will test the trial design and assess recruitment, retention, acceptability and adherence, as well as providing efficacy data.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Discussion The study will inform the design and sample size for a future full randomised controlled trial (RCT) which will be carried out to determine the effectiveness of the online package in improving mood and employment status.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Semi-Supervised Approach to Monitoring Clinical Depressive Symptoms in Social Media

With the rise of social media, millions of people are routinely expressing their moods, feelings, and daily struggles with mental health issues on social media platforms like Twitter. Unlike traditional observational cohort studies conducted through questionnaires and self-reported surveys, we explore the reliable detection of clinical depression from tweets obtained unobtrusively. Based on the analysis of tweets crawled from users with self-reported depressive symptoms in their Twitter profiles, we demonstrate the potential for detecting clinical depression symptoms which emulate the PHQ-9 questionnaire clinicians use today. Our study uses a semi-supervised statistical model to evaluate how the duration of these symptoms and their expression on Twitter (in terms of word usage patterns and topical preferences) align with the medical findings reported via the PHQ-9. Our proactive and automatic screening tool is able to identify clinical depressive symptoms with an accuracy of 68% and precision of 72%.Comment: 8 pages, Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), 2017 IEEE/ACM International Conferenc

Mental distress and podoconiosis in northern Ethiopia: A comparative cross-sectional study

Background The stigma, deformity and disability related to most neglected tropical diseases may lead to poor mental health. We aimed to assess the comorbidity of podoconiosis and mental distress. Methods A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012, including 346 people with podoconiosis and 349 healthy neighbourhood controls. Symptoms of mental distress were assessed using the validated Amharic translation of the Kessler-10 scale (K10). A linear regression analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with mental distress. Results The mean K10 score was 15.92 (95% CI: 15.27 to 16.57) in people with podoconiosis and 14.49 (95% CI: 13.85 to 15.12) in controls (average K10 scores 1.43 points higher [95% CI: 0.52 to 2.34]). In multivariate linear regression of K10 scores, the difference remained significant when adjusted for gender, income, alcohol use, age, place of residence and family history of mental illness. In the adjusted model, people with podoconiosis had K10 scores 1.37 points higher than controls (95% CI: 0.64 to 2.18). Other variables were also associated with high K10 scores: women had K10 scores 1.41 points higher than men (95% CI: 0.63 to 2.18). Those with family history of mental illness had K10 scores 3.56 points higher than those without (95% CI: 0.55 to 6.56). Conclusions This study documented a high burden of mental distress among people with podoconiosis compared with healthy controls. Taking this finding in the context of the high stigma and reduced quality of life, we recommend integration of psychosocial care into the current morbidity management of podoconiosis

Health-related quality of life in people with aphasia: Implications for fluency disorders quality of life research

Abstract It is increasingly important that clinicians address the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of adults with communication disorders in clinical practice. The overall aim of this paper is to draw conclusion about the suitability of the Short Form 36 Health Survey for the communication disorders of aphasia and stuttering. This study reports on the impact of post-stroke aphasia on 30 Australian older adults’ HRQOL. It also comments on the capacity of the SF-36 to measure HRQOL in this population, specifically whether it is sensitive to the three known determinants of post-stroke HRQOL – emotional, physical and social functioning. Comparisons with other data are made to assist interpretation of the SF-36 subscale scores: with 75 older adults with no history of neurological conditions; and with data from the 1995 National Health Survey data. The main findings are: (1) adults with post-stroke aphasia have similar HRQOL to their peers on six subscales, but significantly lower Role emotional and Mental health HRQOL; (2) a substantial number of aphasic adults reported depressive mood; and (3) aphasic adults with depressive mood have significantly worse HRQOL on six subscales than aphasic adults without depressive mood, but similar Role emotional and Body pain HRQOL. In conclusion, stroke and aphasia have minimal impact on older adults’ HRQOL as measured by the SF-36, which conflicts with an established evidence base of the negative consequences of aphasia on life. Thus, the SF-36 is not advisable for use with aphasic adults. Implications of these findings for aphasia and stuttering are discussed. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) describe the impact of aphasia and depressive mood on quality of life; (b) compare the impact of aphasia on the quality of life of adults to adults who do not have aphasia; (c) describe the similarities and differences between quality of life of adults with aphasia and adults who stutter; and (d) describe the strengths and limitations of the SF-36 as a measure of quality of life in adults who stutter versus adults with aphasia