Nicholas Cummins, Judith Dineley, Pauline Conde, Faith Matcham, Sara Siddi, Femke Lamers, Ewan Carr, Grace Lavelle, Daniel Leightley, Katie M White, Carolin Oetzmann, Edward L Campbell, Sara Simblett, Stuart Bruce, Josep Maria Haro, Brenda W J H Penninx, Yatharth Ranjan, Zulqarnain Rashid, Callum Stewart, Amos A Folarin, Raquel Bailón, Björn W Schuller, Til Wykes, Srinivasan Vairavan, Richard J B Dobson, Vaibhav A Narayan, Matthew Hotopf
BACKGROUND: Speech contains neuromuscular, physiological and cognitive components, and so is a potential biomarker of mental disorders. Previous studies indicate that speaking rate and pausing are associated with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, results are inconclusive as many studies are small and underpowered and do not include clinical samples. These studies have also been unilingual and use speech collected in controlled settings. If speech markers are to help understand the onset and progress of MDD, we need to uncover markers that are robust to language and establish the strength of associations in real-world data...
August 18, 2023: Journal of Affective Disorders