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Anxiety In Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Behavioural Phenotypes And Environmental Factors, Caitlin E. Leachman Miss

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anxiety is the most prevalent comorbidity among children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The phenotypical presentation of anxiety among children and adolescents with ASD is lacking within the literature. This study sought to differentiate behavioral phenotypes associated with anxiety in children with ASD from anxiety in typically-developing children. Participants completed a series of child and parent reports measuring anxiety, depressive symptoms, ASD symptom severity, emotional problems, parental stress, and socioeconomic factors. Three distinct anxiety profiles, including moderate, high, and low, were identified. Results demonstrated that depression is the strongest predictor of high anxiety among children and adolescents with …

Concussion-Related Symptomatology And Outcomes In Individuals With Mental Health Conditions: Symptom Number And Severity, Balance Performance, And Time Course To Discharge, Kathryn J. Schulze

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Symptomatology can overlap between concussions and common mental health conditions (MHCs) – such as anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Research determined that there can be an onset of new or worsening symptoms related to pre-existing MHCs in individuals post-concussion. Pre-existing MHCs may affect concussion outcomes. Therefore, the relationship between pre-existing MHCs and concussions was further examined. Study One examined the difference in symptom severity and number of symptoms reported at the initial clinical assessment for concussion for individuals with and without a pre-existing MHC. A chart review determined that individuals with anxiety or multiple MHCs had significantly more concussion symptoms …

Cognitive Decline In Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Survivors: The Role Of White Matter Health As Assessed By Mri., F Hannan, J Hamilton, C J Patriquin, K Pavenski, M T Jurkiewicz, L Tristao, A M Owen, P K Kosalka, S C L Deoni, J Théberge, J Mandzia, S H S Huang, J D Thiessen

Department of Medicine Publications

Immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) is a rare condition caused by severe ADAMTS13 deficiency, leading to platelet aggregation and thrombosis. Despite treatment, patients are prone to cognitive impairment and depression. We investigated brain changes in iTTP patients during remission using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, correlating these changes with mood and neurocognitive tests. Twenty iTTP patients in remission (30 days post-haematological remission) were compared with six healthy controls. MRI scans, including standard and specialized sequences, were conducted to assess white matter health. Increased T1 relaxation times were found in the cingulate cortex (p < 0.05), and elevated T2 relaxation times were observed in the cingulate cortex, frontal, parietal and temporal lobes (p < 0.05). Pathological changes in these areas are correlated with impaired cognitive and depressive scores in concentration, short-term memory and verbal memory. This study highlights persistent white matter damage in iTTP patients, potentially contributing to depression and cognitive impairment. Key regions affected include the frontal lobe and cingulate cortex. These findings have significant implications for the acute and long-term management of iTTP, suggesting a need for re-evaluation of treatment approaches during both active phases and remission. Further research is warranted to enhance our understanding of these complexities.

Achy Awfulness, Rylee J. Rumble

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This written thesis is an accompaniment to a Master of Fine Arts Degree and Exhibition, at Western University, in London, Ontario. The following thesis dossier looks at how I use colour in my painting practice to archive my raw and vulnerable experiences with depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Having colour be the signifier for memories, feelings, emotions, and objects that pertain to my mental health, while painting, has allowed me to project my experiences onto the canvas essentially creating a physical archive; one that allows for me to shed the weight I am carrying and working through. The dossier is split …

A Multi-Method Assessment Of The Impact Of Stress On Families’ Mental Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Andrew R. Daoust

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The COVID-19 pandemic was a pervasive disaster, creating stress for people across the globe. As such, understanding how pandemic-related stress has impacted individuals’ mental health is vital for guiding intervention programs and limiting the impact of future similar crises. This is especially true for youth, who are at heightened risk for mental disorder and may experience pandemic-related social stress as particularly aversive, given the developmental challenges unique to this period. Although substantial efforts have been made to measure the impact of the pandemic-related stress on individuals’ mental health, the pandemic’s relatively sudden onset has limited researchers’ abilities to conduct fulsome …

Examining The Emergence Of Mood And Anxiety Molecular Phenotypes Resulting From Chronic Prenatal Nicotine Exposure In Cerebral Organoids, Emma K. Proud

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE) from maternal smoking disrupts regulatory processes vital to fetal development. These changes result in long-term behavioural impairments, including mood and anxiety disorders, that manifest later in life. However the relationship underlying PNE, and the underpinnings of mood/anxiety molecular phenotypes remains elusive. To model nicotine exposure during prenatal development, our study used human cerebral organoids that were chronically exposed to nicotine and collected for molecular analyses. Short-term, nicotine altered molecular markers of neural identity, mood/anxiety disorders and those involved in maintaining the excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) balance in the cortex. RNA sequencing further revealed transcriptomic changes in genes pertaining …

An Empirical Examination Of The Dyadic Partner-Schema Model Of Relationship Distress And Depression, Jesse Lee Wilde Ms.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Romantic relationship discord is prevalent in depression and has been repeatedly associated with poor prognosis for the disorder. Although a significant body of literature has examined the ways in which depressive self-schema structures (SSS) are implicated in depression, a paucity of research has investigated the role of partner-schema structures (PSS) in the disorder. The Dyadic Partner Schema Model (DPSM; Wilde & Dozois, 2019) was recently developed as a novel theoretical model of the mechanisms that maintain relationship distress in depression. This dissertation provided the first direct empirical examination of the DPSM by examining four main research questions: (1) how are …

The Multidimensional Symptom Index: User Manual And Questionnaire, David Walton

Physical Therapy Publications

The user manual for the MultiDimensional Symptom Index, including hard copy versions in both English and Canadian French translations.

Click here for a direct link to an online interactive version of the MSI: dwalton5.pythonanywhere.com

Depression As A Prognostic Factor For Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Outcomes, Ariel M. Morales

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a degenerative disease common in older adults and is associated with significantly reduced health-related quality of life and increased disability. Depression has been found to be associated with poorer health-related outcomes in patients with spinal conditions. A systematic review was conducted to examine the literature regarding the prognostic value of depression for LSS outcomes. Findings suggest small to moderate prognostic value of depressive symptoms for postoperative outcomes in patients with LSS, with strong evidence for disability. Next, a secondary analysis of a cohort study was conducted to investigate two objectives. The first objective was to …

Role Of The Default-Mode Network During Narrative Integration In Major Depressive Disorder, Darren Ri-Sheng Liang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How brain activity is synchronized across individuals during narrative comprehension has previously been characterized by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy and patient populations. To our knowledge, there has been limited investigation as to how it is affected by major depressive disorder (MDD). We addressed this issue with fMRI through examination of inter-subject synchronization in the default mode network (DMN), brain structures which have previously been implicated in MDD pathology. Twenty-two patients with MDD and 20 matched control participants listened to Intact versus Scrambled versions of an auditory narrative; these experimental conditions differed in the degree of temporal integration …

Relationship Between Humor Styles And Individual Difference Variables, Mira Ismail

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Humor styles provide a better understanding of one’s personality and may vary based on individual difference variables. This study explores humor by looking at how different humor styles may correlate with other variables such as, loneliness, depression, the Big Five traits, self-esteem, age and sex. The following poster outlines the methodology used, as well as the proposed means of data analysis that will be conducted.

Nurse-Led Virtual Delivery Of Pieces In Canadian Long-Term Care Homes To Support The Care Of Older Adults Experiencing Responsive Behaviors During Covid-19: Qualitative Descriptive Study, Anna Garnett, Denise Connelly, Marie Lee Yous, Lillian Hung, Nancy Snobelen, Melissa Hay, Cherie Furlan-Craievich, Shannon Snelgrove, Melissa Babcock, Jacqueline Ripley, Pam Hamilton, Cathy Sturdy-Smith, Maureen O’Connell

Physical Therapy Publications

Background: Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in profound loss of life among older adults living in long-term care (LTC) homes. As a pandemic response, LTC homes enforced infection control processes, including isolating older adults in their rooms, canceling therapeutic programs, and restricting family member visits. Social isolation negatively impacts older adults in LTC, which may result in increased rates of anxiety, depression, physical and cognitive decline, disorientation, fear, apathy, and premature death. Isolation of older adults can also cause an increase in responsive behaviors (eg, yelling, hitting, calling out) to express frustration, fear, restricted movement, and boredom. To respond …

Exceptional Canadian Contributions To Research On Cognitive Vulnerability To Depression., David J. A. Dozois, Elizabeth P. Hayden

Psychology Publications

For more than four decades, Canadian psychologists have made significant contributions to the understanding of cognitive vulnerability to depression. This article highlights some of these exceptional contributions and the important roles Canadian scientists have played in enhancing our understanding of the cognitive products (e.g., dysfunctional attitudes), cognitive operations/processes (e.g., attention, encoding, and memory biases), and cognitive structures (i.e., cognitive organization) involved in depression. Following this review, we discuss research that has integrated cognitive vulnerability with other risk factors for depression, address some important measurement issues in cognitive vulnerability research, and highlight directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 …

Neuroimaging Depression Risk In A Sample Of Never-Depressed Children, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children of mothers with a history of depression are at significantly higher risk for developing depression themselves. Although numerous mechanisms explaining this relationship have been proposed (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999), relatively little is known about the neural substrates of never-depressed children’s depression risk. Of the few studies that have used neuroimaging techniques to characterize risk-based differences in children’s neural structure, function, and functional connectivity, most have used samples that include participants with a personal history of depression or older samples (i.e., past the typical age of onset for depressive disorders). These approaches limit what can be determined regarding whether findings …

The Impact Of Interruptions In Gender-Affirming Medical Care During Covid-19 On Anxiety And Depression Among Trans And Non-Binary People In Canada: A Longitudinal Study, Sara Todorovic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background. Transgender and non-binary (TGNB) populations experience disproportionally high levels of anxiety and depression; it is imperative we investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the mental health of TGNB communities. Methods. Among a Canadian sample of TGNB persons aged >=15 years, we used multiple linear regression to examine whether interruptions in gender-affirming care were associated with anxiety and depression, and whether that effect was modified by pre-pandemic mental health. Results. Anxiety and depression levels were high both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. Approximately a quarter of TGNB persons experienced interruptions in hormonal care. After adjusting for confounders, there …

Chronic Pain Following Musculoskeletal Injuries: Where Do Familial Factors, Depression, And Distress Fit In?, Shirin Modarresi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Currently, there is a paucity of effective therapeutic options for chronic pain. A better understanding of the factors that can contribute to chronic pain development and maintenance can lead to more informed prevention and management strategies.

Purpose: The driving force for this thesis comes from the biopsychosocial model of pain. The main purpose was to investigate the contribution of various psychosocial factors to chronic pain with the following objectives: 1) to systematically review the literature on the existence of a familial sub-type of complex regional pain syndrome (fCRPS); 2) CRPS can follow injuries such as distal radius fractures (DRFs), …

Investigating Associations Between Anxiety Sensitivity And Patient Outcomes In A Cardiac Rehabilitation Program: A One Health Approach, Ebuka Osuji

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) is an exercise-based program, aimed at improving ones’ cardiovascular health. A substantial majority of patients referred to CR do not enroll, complete, or achieve clinical targets in the program due to patient-level factors. The objective of this thesis was to investigate relationships between anxiety sensitivity (AnxS) and patient outcomes in CR. Self-reported questionnaires were completed across two time points, with patient information being abstracted from medical records. Stakeholders associated with reducing the burden of AnxS in CR were also identified using snow-ball sampling. Findings suggest that resting diastolic blood pressure is associated with the interrelationships between AnxS, …

Sensory Function And Psychological Factors In Children With Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1, Emma E. Truffyn, Massieh Moayedi, Stephen C. Brown, Danielle Ruskin, Emma G. Duerden

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Objective: To assess thermal-sensory thresholds and psychosocial factors in children with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1 (CRPS-I) compared to healthy children. Methods: We conducted quantitative sensory testing on 34 children with CRPS-I and 56 pain-free children. Warm, cool, heat, and cold stimuli were applied to the forearm. Children with CRPS-I had the protocol administered to the pain site and the contralateral-pain site. Participants completed the self-report Behavior Assessment System for Children. Results: Longer pain durations (>5.1 months) were associated with decreased sensitivity to cold pain on the pain site (P =.04). Higher pain-intensity ratings were associated with elevated …

Childhood-Onset Epilepsy And Long-Term Child And Maternal Well-Being, Klajdi Puka

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The long-term prognosis of pediatric epilepsy is favorable with respect to seizures, whereby 66% to 80% of children attain seizure control. However, psychiatric and psychosocial problems among children with epilepsy (CWE) and their parents are common, and little is known about their long-term outcomes. The objectives of this dissertation were to: 1) validate a parent-reported measure of young adult’s health-related quality of life (HRQOL), to allow for a consistent informant to report on CWE’s HRQOL from childhood into young adulthood; 2) delineate the long-term course of CWE’s HRQOL and identify the clinical, parent, and family characteristics associated with the trajectory …

Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder: Canadian Expert Consensus On Definition And Assessment, Yuri E. Rybak, Ka S.P. Lai, Rajamannar Ramasubbu, Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, Daniel M. Blumberger, Peter Chan, Nicholas Delva, Peter Giacobbe, Caroline Gosselin, Sidney H. Kennedy, Hani Iskandar, Shane Mcinerney, Paula Ravitz, Verinder Sharma, Ari Zaretsky, Amer M. Burhan

Paediatrics Publications

Background: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a debilitating chronic mental illness that confers increased morbidity and mortality, decreases the quality of life, impairs occupational, social, and offspring development, and translates into increased costs on the healthcare system. The goal of this study is to reach an agreement on the concept, definition, staging model, and assessment of TRD. Methods: This study involved a review of the literature and a modified Delphi process for consensus agreement. The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation II guidelines were followed for the literature appraisal. Literature was assessed for quality and strength of evidence using the …

Depressive Cognition On Twitter., David J A Dozois

Psychology Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Media As A Predictor Of Depression Rates Among Male Versus Female Adolescents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kaylee A. Fishback

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Technology use has drastically and progressively increased as the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to unfold. Adolescents are now reliant on technology for their education, in addition to communication with friends and family (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). With the recency of the pandemic, research on the effects of increased internet and social media use for adolescent mental health is decidedly underdeveloped. This study aimed to fill the research gap by examining how the frequency of male and female adolescents’ social media use is associated with depression rates during the pandemic by using a longitudinal design. Participants for this study included 351 …

The Importance Of Social Connectedness: From Interpersonal Schemas In Depression To Relationship Functioning And Well-Being, David J. A. Dozois

Psychology Publications

In this article, a program of research is described, which began with a focus on depression. A number of studies have demonstrated that negative self-schemas, particularly for interpersonal content, are well organized and appear to represent stable vulnerability factors for depression. Fortunately, this negative interpersonal structure is also modifiable through effective treatments (both psychological and pharmacological). An important extension of this research has involved investigating the impact of schemas on interpersonal phenomena (e.g., excessive reassurance seeking) and the formation of schemas about others (e.g., romantic partners). The dyadic partner-schema model, which articulates how self- and partner-schemas impact relationship functioning, is …

Anxiety And Depression In Canada During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A National Survey., David J. A. Dozois, Mental Health Research Canada

Psychology Publications

Depression and anxiety are the most prevalent mental health problems in Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic will likely result in a large increase in the incidence and prevalence of anxiety and depression and experts are already warning of an “echo pandemic” of mental health problems. The objective is this research was to explore how Canadians are managing with the COVID-19 outbreak and determine the impact of the pandemic on levels of anxiety and depression. A nationally representative sample of 1,803 participants completed an online survey that was offered in both official languages. The percentage of respondents who indicated that their anxiety …

Diffusion Dispersion Imaging: Mapping Oscillating Gradient Spin-Echo Frequency Dependence In The Human Brain., Aidin Arbabi, Jason Kai, Ali R Khan, Corey A Baron

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

PURPOSE: Oscillating gradient spin-echo (OGSE) diffusion MRI provides information about the microstructure of biological tissues by means of the frequency dependence of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). ADC dependence on OGSE frequency has been explored in numerous rodent studies, but applications in the human brain have been limited and have suffered from low contrast between different frequencies, long scan times, and a limited exploration of the nature of the ADC dependence on frequency.

THEORY AND METHODS: Multiple frequency OGSE acquisitions were acquired in healthy subjects at 7T to explore the power-law frequency dependence of ADC, the "diffusion dispersion." Furthermore, a …

Concordance Between Health Administrative Data And Survey-Derived Diagnoses For Mood And Anxiety Disorders, J. Edwards, A. Thind, S. Stranges, M. Chiu, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

Objective: To assess whether estimates of survey structured interview diagnoses of mood and anxiety disorders were concordant with diagnoses of these disorders obtained from health administrative data.

Methods: All Ontario respondents to the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health (CCHS-MH) were linked to health administrative databases at ICES (formerly known as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences). Survey structured interview diagnoses were compared with health administrative data diagnoses obtained using a standardized algorithm. We used modified Poisson regression analyses to assess whether socio-demographic factors were associated with concordance between the two measures.

Results: Of the 4157 Ontarians included in our …

Neural Activity During Self-Referential Processing In Children At Risk For Depression., Pan Liu, Matthew R J Vandermeer, Marc F Joanisse, Deanna M Barch, David J A Dozois, Elizabeth P Hayden

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: According to cognitive theories of depression, more negative and less positive self-schemas are thought to play a causal role in the disorder. Existing evidence speaks to the neural substrates of self-referential processes in both healthy and depressed individuals, but little is known about how the brain relates to self-referential processing in the context of depression risk in children. We therefore studied the neural substrates of self-referential processing in never-depressed preadolescent children at high and low risk for depression based on maternal depression history.

METHODS: A total of 87 never-depressed 10-12-year-old children (29 with maternal depression) completed a self-referential encoding …

Fatigue In Young People With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Basmah El-Aloul, Kathy N Speechley, Yi Wei, Piotr Wilk, Craig Campbell

Paediatrics Publications

AIM: To describe fatigue in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) from patients' and parents' perspectives and to explore risk factors for fatigue in children and adolescents with DMD.

METHOD: A multicentre, cross-sectional study design was used. Seventy-one patients (all males; median age 12y, age range 5-17y) identified via the Canadian Neuromuscular Disease Registry, and their parents completed questionnaires. Subjective fatigue was assessed using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Multidimensional Fatigue Scale by child self-report and parent proxy-report.

RESULTS: Patients with DMD across ages and disease stages experienced greater fatigue compared to typically developing controls from published data. Sleep disturbance symptoms …

Depressogenic Self-Schemas Are Associated With Smaller Regional Grey Matter Volume In Never-Depressed Preadolescents, Pan Liu, Matthew R.J. Vandemeer, Marc F. Joanisse, Deanna M. Barch, David J.A. Dozois, Elizabeth P. Hayden

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Author(s) Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths’ positive self-schemas were associated with greater …

Depressogenic Self-Schemas Are Associated With Smaller Regional Grey Matter Volume In Never-Depressed Preadolescents, Pan Liu, Matthew R.J. Vandemeer, Marc F. Joanisse, Deanna M. Barch, David J.A. Dozois, Elizabeth P. Hayden

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Author(s) Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths’ positive self-schemas were associated with greater …