Use of Conversion and Acoustic Signals in Measuring Depression Severity

使用转换和声学信号测量抑郁严重程度

• 批准号: 7661565
• 负责人: Ramesh Farzanfar
• 金额: $ 21.02万
• 依托单位: BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2012-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7661565
• 关键词: Acoustics; Adult; Characteristics; Classification; Communication; Computer software; Computers; Cues; DSM-IV; Data Collection; Diagnosis; Disease remission; Evaluation; Goals; Health; Health Professional; Human; Individual; Internet; Interview; Link; Major Depressive Disorder; Measurement; Measures; Methodology; Methods; Modality; Monitor; Motor Activity; Participant; Patients; Personal Computers; Persons; Primary Health Care; Process; Property; Psychometrics; Public Health; Questionnaires; Research; Research Personnel; Running; Sampling; Sensitivity and Specificity; Severities; Signal Transduction; Speech; Structure; Symptoms; System; Technology; Telephone; Testing; Time; Validity and Reliability; Voice; base; clinical practice; depressed; depression; depressive symptoms; improved; instrument; inventory of depressive symptomatology; novel; public health relevance; response; social; tool

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this project is the preliminary evaluation of the psychometric properties (test-retest reliability, criterion validity and sensitivity to change) of a novel depression monitoring technology that uses acoustic measures of the patient's speech. The Vocal Social Signals Platform (VSSP) is software that performs analysis on the prosodic (non-verbal) characteristics of speech. The acoustic attributes of a person's speech once analyzed are referred to as the Vocal Social Signals (VSS). Since depressed individuals may demonstrate changes in their speech prosody, Vocal Social Signals could present a useful measurement tool for assessing depression symptoms. In the proposed study, we will employ VSSP to analyze the speech of depressed patients who converse with an automated telephone-based conversational system (Telephone-Linked Communications {TLC}). The psychometric properties of the resulting Vocal Social Signals (VSS) will be the subject of our proposed study. In this study, the Vocal Social Signals will be compared to two different reliable and valid instruments. One instrument, (PHQ-9), is a brief, commonly used questionnaire with good reliability and validity. Since the PHQ- 9 is a brief, validated and reliable questionnaire, it has been adapted to different modalities such as over the telephone and in automated formats (e.g., computer telephony and the Web). The second instrument, the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS), is administered in a semi-structured interview by a health professional. The IDS is a relatively recent 30-item measure of depression symptom severity that includes all the symptom domains needed to diagnose a DSM-IV major depressive disorder and it also assesses for symptom remission. The IDS has scaling items to detect different levels of symptoms. We will evaluate the test-retest reliability of VSS, its criterion validity and its ability to detect change by comparing it to the IDS and to PHQ-9 among 80 individuals (60 depressed and 20 non-depressed). The VSS will be compared to the PHQ- 9 in 5 data collection points while it will be compared to IDS in two data collection points. During all five data collection points, however, the participants will provide a recorded voice sample as they will converse with the TLC system which will administer the PHQ-9 (TLC-PHQ9). The importance of this study is two-fold: 1) If the VSS alone is demonstrated to be reliable and valid, then it would be possible for researchers and clinicians to utilize the VSSP software to detect depression and level of depression symptom severity by recording a patient's speech. 2) However, if the combination of the VSS and PHQ-9 is better, then an ideal methodology for assessing depression level might be an automated telephonic administration of PHQ-9 combined with a VSS analysis of the patients' speech (e.g., their responses to the PHQ-9 questions). Altogether, the evaluation of VSS in this study offers the potential of making a significant improvement in how depression severity level is measured in research and possibly in clinical practice. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project is relevant to public health as it has the ability to provide clinicians with an objective measure to easily and unobtrusively assess symptom severity in depressed patients. This in turn will increase and improve the efficiency and efficacy of depression treatment.

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目旨在初步评估一种新型抑郁症监测技术的心理测量特性（重测信度、标准效度和对变化的敏感性），该技术使用声学测量患者的言语。语音社会信号平台（VSSP）是一种分析语音韵律（非语言）特征的软件。一个人说话的声学属性一旦被分析，就被称为声音社会信号（VSS）。由于抑郁症患者可能表现出他们的语言韵律的变化，声音社会信号可以提供一个有用的测量工具来评估抑郁症状。在提议的研究中，我们将使用VSSP来分析抑郁症患者与基于电话的自动会话系统（电话链接通信{TLC}）交谈的语言。由此产生的声音社会信号（VSS）的心理测量特性将是我们提出的研究主题。在本研究中，声乐社会信号将比较两种不同的可靠和有效的工具。PHQ-9是一份常用的问卷，问卷内容简短，信效度好。由于PHQ- 9是一份简短、有效和可靠的问卷，它已经适应了不同的模式，如通过电话和自动格式（例如，计算机电话和网络）。第二种工具是抑郁症状量表（IDS），由卫生专业人员在半结构化访谈中进行。IDS是一个相对较新的30项抑郁症状严重程度的测量，包括诊断DSM-IV重度抑郁症所需的所有症状域，它也评估症状缓解。IDS具有缩放项以检测不同级别的症状。我们将通过将VSS与IDS和PHQ-9量表（60名抑郁症患者和20名非抑郁症患者）进行比较，评估VSS的重测信度、效度和检测变化的能力。VSS将在5个数据收集点与PHQ- 9进行比较，同时将在2个数据收集点与IDS进行比较。然而，在所有五个数据收集点期间，参与者将提供录制的语音样本，因为他们将与管理PHQ-9 （TLC- phq9）的TLC系统交谈。本研究的重要性有两个方面：1)如果VSS单独被证明是可靠和有效的，那么研究人员和临床医生就有可能利用VSSP软件通过记录患者的言语来检测抑郁症和抑郁症状的严重程度。2)然而，如果VSS和PHQ-9的结合效果更好，那么评估抑郁程度的理想方法可能是PHQ-9的自动电话管理与VSS分析患者的语言（例如，他们对PHQ-9问题的回答）。总之，本研究中对VSS的评估提供了在研究和临床实践中如何测量抑郁严重程度方面做出重大改进的潜力。公共卫生相关性：该项目与公共卫生相关，因为它有能力为临床医生提供一个客观的衡量标准，以方便和不显眼地评估抑郁症患者的症状严重程度。这反过来又会增加和改善抑郁症治疗的效率和疗效。