Sensory Processing Across the Lifespace: Mental Health

What are the challenges of Schizophrenia?

Difficulty with sensory filtering that results in diminished ability to inhibit response to irrelevant stimuli

May experience sensory overload that impacts cognitive function

Difficulty with inhibition

Sensory challenges present prior to onset of symptoms associated with schizophrenia may serve as what?

They can serve as early biomarkers of the disorder

What does it mean to have difficulty with inhibition?

Being intolerable to certain sounds and sensory experiences

What are the challenges with trauma and stress related disorders?

Difficulty with arousal reglation

PTSD may have difficulty with sensory over-responsiveness

What are some of the trauma that people go through early in life as they are developing their sesnory systems through adolescence and adulthood?

emotional neglect, physical abuse, abandonment, institutionization

Those with anxiety disorders have more what?

Sensory sensitivities, sensation-avoiding, heightened emotions, more trouble processing vestibular input

In the meta-analysis article by van den Boogert, et al 2022, about sensory processing difficulties in psychiatric disorders what were the methods of the study?

Included 33 studies (started 2008)

All used the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (a sensory history questionnaire), which looked at how you are processing different sensory processing inputs

What were the findings of the meta-analysis article by van den Boogert, et al 2022, about sensory processing difficulties in psychiatric disorders?

Indicating elevated levels of low registration, sensory senitivity and sensory avoiding and sensory seeking behavior in patients with different types of psychiatric disorders

What were the conclusions of meta-analysis article by van den Boogert, et al 2022, about sensory processing difficulties in psychiatric disorders?

They conclude sensory processing difficulties can be considered as a non-specific transdiagnostic phenotype associated with a braod spectrum of psyhiatric conditions

In the Baillaird, et al., 2023 Qualitative study about Adults with mental illness, what 4 themes were identified in the phenomenological approach with adults with psychotic disorder?

Polysensoriality

Embodied Aethetics of Everyday Life

Habits of Sensing and Sensory Anchors

Active Sensory Beings

What is the Polysensoriality theme about?

Experiences always involve an intersection of the senses

What is the Embodied Aethetics of Everybody Life theme about?

Sensory preferences are historical

What is the Habits of Sensing and Sensory Anchors about?

Personal sensorial guideposts to occupation: guides you towards what you like to do

What is the Active Sensory Beings theme about?

Agency in using sensory experiences to manage oneself

What were the clinical implications of the Baillaird, et al., 2023 Qualitative study about Adults with mental illness?

Consider that sensory experiences can be situated within contexts and within choices, based on individual differences/aversions and preferences as well as the individual’s lived experience and history with the context and sensations

Do not assume that sensory preferences/aversions generalize across contexts/occupations

Above all, ask the individual

What were the methodlogies of the Chen, et al. 2024 article A Mixed Methods Exploration of Sensory Processing Differences and Mental Health Experiences in Middle Aged and Older Autisitic Adults?

Utilized self-reported online questionaires

Conducted in the UK

What were the findings of the Chen, et al. 2024 article A Mixed Methods Exploration of Sensory Processing Differences and Mental Health Experiences in Middle Aged and Older Autisitic Adults?

Sensory processing differences (SPD) and mental health symptoms were more apparent in the autisitic group than non-autisitic group

Autistic women identified higher levels of anxiety + depression +SPDs and poorer mental health compared to autistic men

SPDs were more often reported to worsen across adulthood by those in the autisitic group than those in the non-autistic group

Positive asociations between SPDs and anxiety/depression symptoms were observed in the autisitic group (strength of associations with increasing age)

Qualitative Data revealed 6 themes from participants lived experiences

What are the clinical considerations of the Chen, et al. 2024 article A Mixed Methods Exploration of Sensory Processing Differences and Mental Health Experiences in Middle Aged and Older Autisitic Adults?

Evidence suggests that autistic adults in older age may be more likely to have a heightened risk of SPDs and associated poorer mental health

Identifies a need to further explore sensory differences in autisitic adults in midlife and older adulthood

What is the Adult Sensory Processing Scale (ASPS)?

A self-report questionnaire designed to measure behavioral responses indicative of sensory processing challenges in 5 systems

What are the five systems assessed in the for processing challenges in the ASPS?

Tactile

Proprioceptive

Vestibular

Auditory

Visual