Using Speech Analyses for Detecting Suicide Risk and Relapse in Eating Disorders
About this study
Research Team
Investigators: Dr. Philip Sumner, Dr. Antonio Mendoza Diaz, Dr. Darren Haywood, Dr. Ravi Iyer, Dr. Sandun Silva, Dr. Sean Carruthers, Prof. Denny Meyer, Ms. Holly Pedersen, Mr. Finley Knowles, A/Prof. Peter Bosanac, Dr. Jeremy Furyk, Prof. David Castle, P
Institution
Swinburne University of Technology, University of Tasmania and Barwon Health
Funding Source
Medical Research Future Fund (2036110)
Project Start Date
1 March 2025
Project End Date
1 June 2027
Participants
Individuals aged 12-25 with a current eating disorder diagnosis (including, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder and other specified feeding and eating disorder).
Participants must be currently based in Victoria or Tasmania.
Participants cannot be current smokers (including vapes/e-cigarettes), or have had previous vocal cord surgery, or other conditions that effect voice acoustics.
Exclusion criteria will be assessed during a brief phone screen.
Parents are welcome to register interest using the link on behalf of their children.
What is Involved
The study involves several components: a brief phone screen, online consent session (30 minutes), three in-person visits (baseline, 2-month, 4-month; roughly 10 hours total) and some smartphone surveys (1 hour total).
Audio recordings of speech, and measures of suicide risk and ED symptom severity will be collected at all in-person visits, and on each smart phone survey. However, in-person visits will involve a more comprehensive assessment of clinical symptoms and diagnoses, as well as an assessment of cognitive functioning and an extended protocol for eliciting samples of speech.
Participants will be reimbursed for each of the three in-person visits and for completing the 28-day EMA phase, via electronic gift cards.
Ethics Approval Number
Swinburne University Human Research Ethics Committee (20258700-22028) and St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (233/25-121407).
Location
Any of: Swinburne University of Technology (Hawthorn, Victoria), University of Tasmania (Hobart, Tasmania) and Barwon Health (University Hospital Geelong, Geelong, Victoria)
Contact Details
Frederica Slipper/0392143591/EDacoustics@swin.edu.au
Visit website: redcap.swinburne.edu.au
This study is exploring whether the way people speak can show changes in mental health, specifically experiences of suicidality and eating disorder symptoms. We will look at features like tone, speed, volume, and pauses to see if certain speech patterns relate to how someone is feeling. The goal is to find patterns that can help predict eating disorder symptoms and suicide risk in 12-25-year-olds with an eating disorder diagnosis.
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