| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Resch, Barbara, et al.
(författare)
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Estimation of the instantaneous pitch in speech
- 2007
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing. - 1558-7916. ; 15:3, s. 813-822
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An accurate estimation of the pitch is essential for many speech processing applications, such as speech synthesis, speech coding, and speech enhancement. A widely used assumption in most common pitch estimation methods is that pitch is constant over a segment of short duration. This assumption does not apply in reality and leads to inaccurate pitch estimates. In this paper, we present a method for continuous pitch estimation that is able to track fast changes. In the presented framework, the pitch is modeled by a B-spline expansion and optimized in a multistage procedure for increased robustness. The performance of the continuous optimization procedure is compared to state-of-the-art pitch estimation methods and is evaluated both for artificial speech-like signals with known pitch, and for real speech signals. The results of the experiments show that our method leads to a higher accuracy of the estimate of the pitch than state-of-the-art methods.
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| 13. |
- Sobocki, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Health-related quality of life measured with EQ-5D in patients treated for depression in primary care.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 1098-3015. ; 10:2, s. 153-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to assess the impact of depression on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQL) with the EQ-5D instrument over 6 months while on antidepressant treatment. METHODS: A total of 447 patients were recruited at 56 primary care centers to this naturalistic longitudinal observational study. Patients older than 18 years with depressive symptoms, and who initiated an antidepressant therapy because of depression were included in the study. Data on patients' sociodemographics, daily activity, and quality of life (EQ-5D) were collected using questionnaires completed during outpatient general practitioner visits for a follow-up period of 6 months. RESULTS: The mean EQ-5D utility score at baseline was 0.47 (0.44-0.49). Milder cases of depression reported a health utility of 0.60, whereas moderately and severely depressed patients reported utility values of 0.46 and 0.27, respectively (P < 0.01). At end of follow up the average utility was 0.69 (0.67-0.72), corresponding to an increase of 0.23 over 6 months (P < 0.01). Regression analyses showed that, all else equal, patients who were on sick leave were associated with 10% lower utility. CONCLUSIONS: Depression has a substantial impact on HRQL. Our results indicate that treatments for depression are associated with significant improvement in EQ-5D index score over a course of 6 months. Self-reported patient valuations are important outcomes for cost-utility analysis of new treatments for depression and the present study provides important evidence for future economic evaluations.
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| 14. |
- Sobocki, Patrik, et al.
(författare)
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Model to assess the cost-effectiveness of new treatments for depression.
- 2006
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Ingår i: International journal of technology assessment in health care. - 0266-4623 .- 1471-6348. ; 22:4, s. 469-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to develop a model to assess the cost-effectiveness of a new treatment for patients with depression. METHODS: A Markov simulation model was constructed to evaluate standard care for depression as performed in clinical practice compared with a new treatment for depression. Costs and effects were estimated for time horizons of 6 months to 5 years. A naturalistic longitudinal observational study provided data on costs, quality of life, and transition probabilities. Data on long-term consequences of depression and mortality risks were collected from the literature. Cost-effectiveness was quantified as quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained from the new treatment compared with standard care, and the societal perspective was taken. Probabilistic analyses were conducted to present the uncertainty in the results, and sensitivity analyses were conducted on key parameters used in the model. RESULTS: Compared with standard care, the new hypothetical therapy was predicted to substantially decrease costs and was also associated with gains in QALYs. With an improved treatment effect of 50 percent on achieving full remission, the net cost savings were 20,000 Swedish kronor over a 5-year follow-up time, given equal costs of treatments. Patients gained .073 QALYs over 5 years. The results are sensitive to changes in assigned treatment effects. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides a new model for assessing the cost-effectiveness of treatments for depression by incorporating full remission as the treatment goal and QALYs as the primary outcome measure. Moreover, we show the usefulness of naturalistic real-life data on costs and quality of life and transition probabilities when modeling the disease over time.
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