VTU Researcher to Discuss Prevalence of Anxiety in People with ASD

Virginia Tech researcher Dr. Susan White.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A researcher who studies the prevalence of anxiety in people with autism spectrum disorder will share details of her work during a lecture Friday, April 28, at The University of Alabama.

Dr. Susan White is a clinical scientist at Virginia Tech University. She specializes in the treatment, service development and evaluation of people with ASD. She directs the Psychosocial Interventions Lab and Child Assessment Clinic, where she and colleagues run interventions based on cognitive and group behavior and technology to identify the core processes that give rise to symptoms of anxiety.

White’s talk will focus primarily in how people view anxiety in autism. Although anxiety is not a defining feature for ASD diagnosis, its prevalence in those with ASD is being studied with more rigor, White said.

Her lecture is part of a speaker series hosted by the UA Center for the Prevention of Youth Behavior Problems. The lecture will begin at 2:30 p.m. in room 103 of North Lawn Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

“All of my research is very applied – I see kids, treat kids and have a private practice,” White said. “In our lab, we try to intervene at the mechanistic level, without pharmacology, to alter emotional and behavioral problems. The talk itself is focused on the research, but it has applications to both parenting and clinical settings.”

White said anxiety is one of the most common issues that leads to referrals for treatment.

“It’s not always just communication and social impairment,” White said.

White and researchers in her lab are trying figure out if there’s pathology within autism that leads directly or indirectly to higher risk for anxiety, or if there’s a shared pathophysiology that gives rise to both.

White is also the co-director of the VT Autism Clinic and assistant director of VT’s Child Study Center. White and colleagues published one of the first papers documenting how prevalent anxiety disorders are in children and teens and have incorporated eye tracking into studies of social anxiety in autism.

Contact

David Miller, UA Media Relations, 205/348-0825, david.c.miller@ua.edu

Source

Dr. Susan White, professor, psychology department, Virginia Tech University, 540/231-8511, sww@vt.edu