ASD

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition found in 1 in 68 children. As well as suffering neurologically-based difficulties in social communication and interaction, plus restricted and repetitive behaviour patterns, young autistic people also often experience stress, anxiety, and depression at higher levels than their non-ASD peers. This comorbidity of ASD and stress, anxiety, and depression can confound the process of accurate diagnosis and treatment planning for autistic children, particularly when they experience chronic stress.

Because of this confound between the symptoms of ASD and those of stress, anxiety and depression, and the need to accurately identify which symptoms are associated with which disorder, several major issues have been addressed in our research programme which focuses upon school-age male and female autistic children, their siblings and parents.

To facilitate that focus, the BBRG Autism Study (BBRGAS) was initiated in 2016, and has so far collected data from over 500 autistic children, their parents, siblings and non-ASD peers. Measures include: demographic information (age, sex, ASD diagnostic profile and secondary diagnosis, family size and structure, pubertal status, school grade and achievement, experiences of bullying, medication, etc); psychological test data (IQ and profile, ADOS-2 scores, KIDSCID, Sensory Profile, SRS-2, Aberrant Behaviour Checklist, CASI for anxiety and depression, parental GAD and MDD, ASD Behaviour Checklist, ASRS, SWEAA (for girls), Psychological Resilience);  biological sampling (salivary cortisol & alpha amylase, inflammatory factors, ECG, EDA); neurological indices (64-site EEG); and associated measures. Parallel data have been collected from the parents and siblings of these autistic children.

Several specific research foci that have been examined in this research programme so far include:

  • The prevalence, nature and specific indicators of stress, anxiety, and depression in autistic children.
  • Differences in stress, anxiety, and depression ratings from parents and their autistic children and their relative validity.
  • The associations between the major diagnostic criteria for ASD and stress, anxiety, and depression in autistic children.
  • The use of cortisol as an index of stress, anxiety, and depression in ASD.
  • How autistic children respond to change, using stress, anxiety and psychophysiological indicators (HR, HRV, EDA, cortisol) as validators.
  • Sensory Features, stress, anxiety, and depression.
  • Aberrant Behaviour and its association with stress, anxiety, and depression in ASD.
  • Parental stress, anxiety and depression, and how these influence parents' perceptions of their child's state.
  • The differences between ‘male’ and ‘female’ autism as exhibited by autistic children.
  • EEG patterns of autistic children.

This collaboration includes researchers from the USA (Prof John Sweeney, University of Cincinnati), the UK (Prof Richard Mills, University of Bath; Prof Will Mandy, UCL), and several universities in Europe.

This programme is led by Professor Vicki Bitsika, Biomedical Sciences.