Social media provide easy ways to autistic individuals to communicate and to make their voices heard. The objective of this paper is to identify the main themes that are being discussed by autistic people on Twitter. We collected a sample of tweets containing the hashtag #ActuallyAutistic during the period 10/02/2022 and 14/09/2022. To identify the most discussed topics, BERTopic modelling was applied. We manually grouped the detected topics into 6 major themes using inductive content analysis: 1) General aspects of autism and experiences of autistic individuals; 2) Autism awareness, pride and funding; 3) Interventions, mostly related to Applied Behavior Analysis; 4) Reactions and expressions; 5) Everyday life as an autistic (lifelong condition, work, housing…); and 6) Symbols and characteristics. The majority of tweets were presenting general aspects and experiences as autistic individuals; raising awareness; and about their dissatisfaction with some interventions. The identification of autistic individuals' main discussion themes could help to develop meaningful public health agendas and research involving and addressed to autistic individuals.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/SHTI230161 | DOI Listing |
Int J Dev Neurosci
February 2025
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Vels Institute of Science & Technology & Advanced Studies, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
Nowadays, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a successful new therapeutic strategy in a variety of sectors of the health profession, including rehabilitation, the promotion of inpatients' emotional wellness, diagnostics, surgeon training and mental health therapy. This study develops a new model VRAPMG for children with ASD with the following steps that consider 3D gaming. In this work, the face image is considered to evaluate the attention of the children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Neurodev Disord
December 2024
School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, 417 Emmet St South, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA.
Objectives: Mantra recitation has been shown to improve emotional well-being in neurotypical individuals with mental health conditions; however, no research has explored its effect on the autistic population. The private, routine nature of mantra and mantra-like recitation may offer unique advantages for autistic individuals struggling with negative emotions and emotion regulation. The purpose of this study was therefore to conduct a preliminary study of the feasibility and efficacy of a self-guided, online program of reciting secular mantra-like phrases in improving negative emotions and cognitive coping mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Autism Dev Disord
January 2025
Leo Kannerhuis, Youz (Parnassia Group), Arnhem/Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Research shows heterogeneity in experiences of social contact and social networks in autistic adults. In this study, we aim to identify clusters of social support networks and investigate associations of clusters with mastery, quality of life, and autism characteristics. Autistic adults (N = 381; 45.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Autism Dev Disord
January 2025
Institutes for Behavior Resources, Inc, 2104 Maryland Ave., Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
We aimed to compare sleep problems in autistic and non-autistic adults with co-occurring depression and anxiety. The primary research question was whether autism status influences sleep quality, after accounting for the effects of depression and anxiety. We hypothesized that autistic adults would report higher levels of depression, anxiety, and sleep problems compared to non-autistic adults, after controlling for these covariates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutism Res
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Catatonia is a highly morbid psychomotor and affective disorder, which can affect autistic individuals with and without intellectual disability. Catatonic symptoms are treatable with pharmacotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, but the longitudinal effectiveness of these treatments in autistic individuals has not been described. We conducted a prospective observational cohort study of patients with autism and co-morbid catatonia who received outpatient care in a specialized outpatient clinic from July 1, 2021 to May 31, 2024.
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