Speech features in clinical depression 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Acoustic and perceptual features in clinical depression: A feasibility pilot study
IRAS ID
239592
Contact name
Hamish McAllister-Williams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 7 days
Research summary
The proposed pilot study will investigate vocal characteristics within clinical depression, explore their role as potential indicators of symptom severity and the utilisation of a smartphone as a reliable method for voice data capture.
The pilot study may potentially be linked to Study EME Ref: 16/44/22, a randomised control trial examining treatment response in depressed patients. As such, certain methodological choices, such as data collection points, and inclusion/exclusion criteria were selected to mirror those chosen for this larger study.
Data will be collected from a clinical (i.e. depressed) and control group, with four time points for collection: baseline, 8 weeks, 16 weeks and 26 weeks. Participants will be required to complete assessments to determine symptom severity, and also provide voice samples collected simultaneously through a smartphone device and studio recording equipment.
Exploratory analysis of voice features, including acoustic parameters (e.g. frequency, perturbation), perceptual aspects (e.g. articulator movement, phonation) and prosody will be undertaken with the aim of refining the number of variables to be investigated in future research. This project will also offer the opportunity to determine confidence interval estimation for different parameters within clinical and non-clinical samples. Furthermore, results from this pilot will provide information on length of time necessary for completion of in-depth vocal analysis per participant, and whether this method of analysis is feasible on a larger scale.
A cross-recorder parallel validation will also take place, comparing the quality of acoustic outputs from both a smartphone device and studio recording equipment. Results will provide justification for the use of a smartphone device as a reliable method of data capture for future research in depressed populations.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0129
Date of REC Opinion
12 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion