Relatively little attention has been given to mixed anxiety and depression in autistic youth, particularly how this differs between males and females. This study investigated sex-based differences in the prevalence and correlates of mixed anxiety and depression in a sample of 51 autistic males ( age = 10.16 yr, SD = 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relies on the observation of difficulties in social communication and interaction, plus the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviors. The identification of neurological correlates of these symptoms remains a high priority for clinical research, and has the potential to increase the validity of diagnosis of ASD as well as provide greater understanding of how the autistic brain functions. This study focused on two neurological phenomena that have been previously associated with psychiatric disorders (alpha- and theta-wave asymmetry across the frontal region of the brain), and tested for their association with the major diagnostic criteria for ASD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychological resilience (PR) is known to be inversely associated with depression. While there is a growing body of research examining how depression alters activity across multiple functional neural networks, how differences in PR affect these networks is largely unexplored. This study examines the relationship between PR and functional connectivity in the alpha and beta bands within (and between) eighteen established cortical nodes in the default mode network, the central executive network, and the salience network.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelancholia is a major and severe subtype of depression, with only limited data regarding its association with neurological phenomena. To extend the current understanding of how particular aspects of melancholia are correlated with brain activity, electroencephalographic data were collected from 100 adults (44 males and 56 females, all aged 18 y or more) and investigated for the association between symptoms of melancholia and the ratios of alpha/beta activity and theta/beta activity at parietal-occipital EEG sites PO1 and PO2. The results indicate differences in these associations according to the depressive status of participants and the particular symptom of melancholia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: A high incidence of psychosocial problems in prostate cancer patients has been reported including anxiety, depression and distress. These can add to the patients' disease burden and have been associated with unfavorable cancer treatment outcomes. Interventions designed to address them have found limited success, but psychological resilience (PR) training has never been formally tested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Prostate cancer (PCa) patients often experience depression. One possible buffer against stress-related depression is psychological resilience (PR), which has been described as heterogeneous in structure, like major depressive disorder (MDD). Although both of these constructs are central to understanding and assisting distressed PCa patients, no data have been reported on how they connect via network arrays at a component and symptom level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression is associated with frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) and Psychological Resilience (PR), although in different ways. Only cursory attention has been given to how these three constructs interact despite the possible clinical and research implications of those associations. One limitation of recent research into these associations has been conceptualising PR as a unitary construct, whereas it has been shown to be multi-component.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlpha wave asymmetry inconsistently correlates with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). One possible reason for this inconsistency is the heterogeneity of MDD, leading to study of depressive 'subtypes', one of which is Melancholia. To investigate the correlation between Melancholia and alpha-wave asymmetry, 100 community participants (44 males, 56 females; aged at least 18 yr) completed the Zung self-rated Depression Scale, and underwent 3 min of eyes closed EEG recording from 24 scalp sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Although depression is widespread carries a major disease burden, current treatments remain non-universally effective, arguably due to the heterogeneity of depression, and leading to the consideration of depressive "subtypes" or "depressive behavior subtypes." One such model of depressive behavior (DB) subtypes was investigated for its associations with frontal lobe asymmetry (FLA), using a different data analytic procedure than in previous research in this field.
Methods: 100 community volunteers (54 males, 46 females) aged between 18 yr.
Purpose: Caring for an autistic child is associated with elevated stress, anxiety and depression. Although some data suggest that 'child' or 'carer' factors may moderate the severity of carer distress, relatively few international comparisons have been made, limiting the generalizability of previous findings. This study aimed to address this issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo investigate possible contributors to the inconsistent association between frontal lobe asymmetry (FLA) and depression, EEG data were collected across five frontal sites, and examined for their associations with four subtypes of depression (Depressed mood, Anhedonia, Cognitive depression, Somatic depression). One hundred community volunteers (54 males, 46 females) aged at least 18 yr completed standardized scales for depression and anxiety, and gave EEG data under Eyes Open and Eyes Closed conditions. Results indicated that, although there was no significant correlation between the differences in EEG power across each of the five pairs of frontal sites and total depression scores, there were several meaningful correlations (accounting for at least 10% of the variance) between specific EEG site differences data and each of the four depression subtypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Many prostate cancer patients also suffer from depression, which can decrease their life satisfaction and also impede recovery from their cancer. This study described the network structure of depressive symptomatology in prostate cancer patients, with a view to providing suggestions for clinical interventions for depressed patients.
Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 555 prostate cancer patients completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).
This study aimed to investigate the moderating effect of psychological resilience on sleep-deterioration-related depression among patients with prostate cancer, in terms of the total score and individual symptoms. From a survey of 96 patients with prostate cancer, 55 who reported a deterioration in their sleep quality since diagnosis and treatment completed the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Insomnia Severity Index. Moderation analysis was conducted for the scale total scores and for the 'core' symptoms of each scale within this sample, based on data analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn order to evaluate the effects of specific forms of childhood maltreatment (CM) upon adult C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations, and to further describe the potentially confounding role that recent life stress and depression hold in that relationship, 221 participants from rural Australia ( age = 44yr, SD = 17.8yr) completed self-report questionnaires and provided a blood sample. There were no sex differences in any variables across the 91 males and 130 females, but depression status did confound the association between global CM and CRP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Autistic youth are often bullied at school, which may lead to school refusal (SR). Currently, there is little research on factors that may help prevent SR among autistic youth. To advance theory-driven preventative interventions, this study examined associations between psychological resilience and emerging SR (ESR) among autistic youth bullied at school.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Soc Care Community
February 2022
Housing is a significant determinant of health and is widely accepted as a key solution to address some of the health disparities that exist among the homeless. It is estimated that 150 million people worldwide are homeless, and approximately 1.8 billion lack adequate housing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
May 2021
Young people with autism are often bullied at school, a potential direct correlate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This may be compounded by their difficulties in social interaction. Alternately, some of these young people may develop 'coping strategies' against bullying that may have an inverse association with PTSD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutism Spectrum Disorder and depression are often co-occurring in young people. However, despite the association between these two disorders, and the fact that females have a higher prevalence of depression than males in the general population, there is little reported evidence regarding the correlates of depression in young autistic females. Several physiological (age, menarche, HPA-axis responses), psychological (social anxiety), and environmental or genetic (mothers' depression) factors were tested for their contribution to depression severity in a sample of 53 autistic girls aged 6 yr to 17 yr.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMen who suffer from prostate cancer (PCa) need to make important decisions regarding their treatment options. There is some evidence that these men may suffer from sleep difficulties due to their cancer or its diagnosis and treatment. Although sleep difficulties have been associated with cognitive depression in other samples of men, they have not been examined in PCa patients, despite the importance of decision-making for these men.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression continues to carry a major disease burden worldwide, with limitations on the success of traditional pharmacological or psychological treatments. Recent approaches have therefore focused upon the neurobiological underpinnings of depression, and on the "individualization" of depression symptom profiles. One such model of depression has divided the standard diagnostic criteria into four "depression subtypes", with neurological and behavioral pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although it has been reported for some time that parenting an autistic child is associated with elevated anxiety and depression, no direct comparison has been published regarding the relative anxiety and depressive states of parents of an autistic son versus an autistic daughter.
Aims: To investigate the presence of differences in anxiety and depression in parents of autistic girls and boys, and to identify if there were any meaningful child-based correlates of those states.
Methods And Procedures: A sample of 51 parents of young autistic males (M age = 10.
Objective: To test the 'buffering' effect of psychological resilience (PR) upon depression in prostate cancer patients and to also investigate any effects that past or current treatment may have had upon patients' PR as a test of the 'steeling' hypothesis of past adversity upon future resilience.
Methods: A total of 576 volunteer prostate cancer patients completed questionnaires about their demographic and treatment variables, and their psychological resilience and depression. Factor analysis was used to identify the underlying components of the resilience measure.
Many patients with prostate cancer experience severe levels of depression, which can negatively affect their treatment and disease course. Some prostate cancer treatments can increase the severity of a patient's depression, for example, by increasing anhedonia and erectile dysfunction. Depression is often thought of as a unitary phenomenon, but multiple subtypes can be distinguished.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Autism Dev Disord
April 2021
The experience of being bullied is widespread among autistic youth. Relatively little empirical work has been done on the relationship between the bullying of these youth and school refusal (SR). This study of 67 school-age autistic boys (M = 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough EEG connectivity data are often used to build models of the association between overt behavioural signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and underlying brain connectivity indices, use of a large number of possible connectivity methods across studies has produced a fairly inconsistent set of results regarding this association. To explore the level of agreement between results from five commonly-used EEG connectivity models (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF