Autism Spectrum Disorders and Depression: Shared Mechanisms in Brain and Behavior

自闭症谱系障碍和抑郁症：大脑和行为的共同机制

• 批准号: 8819728
• 负责人: Katherine O Gotham
• 金额: $ 16.01万
• 依托单位: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8819728
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Advanced Development; Affect; Affective; Anxiety; Autistic Disorder; Behavioral; Blinking; Clinical; Clinical Research; Cognitive; Communities; Comorbidity; Control Groups; Cues; Depressed mood; Development; Development Plans; Disease; Electromyography; Emotional; Endogenous depression; Environment; Exhibits; Eye; Face; Future; General Population; Goals; Health; Image; Impairment; Individual; Individual Differences; Intervention; Intervention Studies; Knowledge; Lead; Link; Measurement; Measures; Mental Depression; Mentors; Methods; Moods; Motivation; National Institute of Mental Health; Neurobiology; Neurologic; Outcome Study; Participant; Population; Positioning Attribute; Process; Prospective Studies; Protocols documentation; Psychometrics; Psychophysiology; Quality of life; Reflex action; Relative (related person); Reporting; Research; Research Design; Research Personnel; Research Training; Sampling; Schizophrenia; Social Controls; Source; Stimulus; Symptoms; Thinking; Time; Training; Translating; Treatment outcome; Underserved Population; Visual; Work; analog; autism spectrum disorder; brain behavior; career; career development; clinically significant; cohort; comparison group; depressive symptoms; design; effective intervention; experience; improved; in vivo; named group; novel; peer; programs; public health relevance; response; screening; social; theories; therapy development

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represent a poorly understood and underserved population. Co- occurring depression is a leading form of clinical impairment for this group, yet few studies have explored potential underlying mechanisms of and intervention for depression in ASD. There is a significant clinical need to translate methods from depression research to ASD, with the ultimate goal of developing effective intervention aimed at improving quality of life in this special population. Th goal of this training plan is to position the PI as an independent investigator and translational bridge between ASD and depression research. The PI's training goals are (1) to develop expertise in psychophysiological methods that can be used to study candidate mechanisms of depression in ASD, and (2) to gain a working knowledge of research programs from the ASD and depression fields that are specifically organized to translate findings from mechanistic studies into treatment development and outcome studies. The PI has proposed a career development plan that integrates mentored research experience, advanced coursework, and active involvement in an institutional environment strongly conducive to cutting-edge autism and depression research. This training will augment the PI's background in behavioral methods, ASD clinical research, and depression theory. The proposed research plan is designed to explore possible mechanisms by which ASD may confer increased propensity for depression. In Aim 1, three groups (adults with ASD, adults with depression, typically developing adults) will be compared on markers of affect modulation, social motivation, and rumination. These constructs have been empirically validated for depression and also are conceptually related to core features of ASD; however, no direct between-group comparison exists. The candidate's preliminary studies have identified a strong relationship between insistence on sameness (IS), rumination, and depressive symptoms in adults with ASD, suggesting that IS may be an autism-specific analogue of the perseverative thought process that has been shown to precede and maintain depression in the general population. Aim 2 will explore individual differences within a sample of adults with ASD, comparing participants who have high versus low levels of IS on depression-related markers from Aim 1 (affect modulation, social motivation, rumination) and on repeated measures of social engagement and depressive symptoms collected daily via experience sampling. The proposed studies are designed to provide the candidate with direct experience in psychophysiological methods relevant to the study of depression, as well as to refine hypotheses about potential pathogenic processes and their interactions that may lead to depression in ASD. This research training plan will accelerate the candidate's career as an independent investigator equipped to design and evaluate theoretically grounded interventions for depression within the ASD community. As such, it is well-aligned with NIMH goals to study both causal mechanisms and intervention for a clinically significant health problem in a special population.

描述（由申请人提供）：患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的成年人代表了一个知之甚少和服务不足的人群。同时发生的抑郁症是这一群体临床损害的主要形式，然而很少有研究探索ASD中抑郁症的潜在潜在机制和干预。有一个显着的临床需要，从抑郁症的研究方法转化为ASD，最终目标是开发有效的干预措施，旨在提高生活质量，在这个特殊的人群。本培训计划的目标是将PI定位为ASD和抑郁症研究之间的独立研究者和翻译桥梁。PI的培训目标是（1）发展可用于研究ASD抑郁症候选机制的心理生理学方法的专业知识，以及（2）获得ASD和抑郁症领域研究计划的工作知识，这些研究计划专门用于将机制研究的结果转化为治疗开发和结果研究。PI提出了一个职业发展计划，该计划整合了指导研究经验，先进的课程，并积极参与有利于尖端自闭症和抑郁症研究的机构环境。这项培训将增加PI在行为方法，ASD临床研究和抑郁理论方面的背景。拟议的研究计划旨在探索ASD可能增加抑郁倾向的可能机制。在目标1中，将比较三组（ASD成人，抑郁症成人，典型的发展中成人）的情感调节，社会动机和反刍标记。这些结构已被经验验证为抑郁症，也是概念上相关的ASD的核心功能，但是，没有直接的组间比较存在。该候选人的初步研究已经确定了自闭症谱系障碍成年人的坚持同一性（IS）、沉思和抑郁症状之间存在密切关系，这表明IS可能是自闭症特有的持续性思维过程的类似物，已被证明在自闭症谱系障碍成年人中，这种思维过程先于并维持抑郁症。一般人群。目标2将探索ASD成年人样本中的个体差异，比较目标1中抑郁相关标志物（情感调节，社会动机，反刍）和通过经验采样每天收集的社会参与和抑郁症状的重复测量的高与低水平IS的参与者。拟议的研究旨在为候选人提供与抑郁症研究相关的心理生理学方法的直接经验，以及完善有关可能导致ASD抑郁症的潜在致病过程及其相互作用的假设。该研究培训计划将加速候选人作为独立调查员的职业生涯，以设计和评估ASD社区内抑郁症的理论基础干预措施。因此，它与NIMH的目标是一致的，既研究因果机制，也研究特殊人群中临床显著健康问题的干预措施。