Intranasal Oxytocin For Autism

Oxytocin nasal spray (18 or 24 IU) improved emotional recognition in autistic children. This is not the first time it has been shown to have social effects. May not last long so might be relegated to emergencies..

Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Apr 1;67(7):692-4.
Intranasal oxytocin improves emotion recognition for youth with autism spectrum disorders.
Guastella AJ, Einfeld SL, Gray KM, Rinehart NJ, Tonge BJ, Lambert TJ, Hickie IB. abstract here

• ages 12- 19
• Helped with “inferring mental state of others” during a Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET)
• dose of 24 IU (4 puffs per nostril)
• side effects:
  • Oxytocin – feeling tired and relaxed (n = 4), sweating (n = 1).
  • Placebo – tired and relaxed (n =1),headaches (n = 1), and coughing (n= 1).

  

Well, doesn’t work for hard stuff, and improves things by 20% – no panacea there.. It looks like it makes kids more tired and relaxed and under those circumstances that can pick out social cues better. It dos not directly improve sociability to my thinking.
May help control social phobia:

• J Neurosci. 2008 Jun 25;28(26):6607-15.
  Oxytocin attenuates affective evaluations of conditioned faces and amygdala activity.
  Petrovic P, Kalisch R, Singer T, Dolan RJ. free article here
  Threatening faces weren’t so much with oyxtocin

Helped selfishness

• Emotion. 2008 Dec;8(6):781-91.
  Effects of oxytocin and prosocial behavior on brain responses to direct and vicariously experienced pain.
  Singer T, Snozzi R, Bird G, Petrovic P, Silani G, Heinrichs M, Dolan RJ. free article here
  Game related pain producing selfishness was driven more by anxiety and oxytocin helped that and decreased selfish pain inflicting

Helps couples communicate

• Intranasal Oxytocin Increases Positive Communication and Reduces Cortisol Levels During Couple Conflict
  Biological Psychiatry, Volume 65, Issue 9, 1 May 2009, Pages 728-731
  Beate Ditzen, Marcel Schaer, Barbara Gabriel, Guy Bodenmann, Ulrike Ehlert, Markus Heinrichs
  abstract here
  “Oxytocin significantly increased positive communication behavior in relation to negative behavior during the couple conflict discussion”… [versus placebo]

Helps people understand each other better

• Oxytocin Improves “Mind-Reading” in Humans
  Biological Psychiatry, Volume 61, Issue 6, 15 March 2007, Pages 731-733
  Gregor Domes, Markus Heinrichs, Andre Michel, Christoph Berger, Sabine C. Herpertz
  “[increased] ability to infer the affective mental state of others using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) after intranasal administration of 24 IU oxytocin”

It has been dubbed the “love hormone” because it is released with childbirth and sex relations.

• Love and Envy Linked by Same Hormone, Oxytocin

As mentioned above, it is not all good and leads to envy when down, and gloating when ahead:

• Intranasal Administration of Oxytocin Increases Envy and Schadenfreude (Gloating)
  Biological Psychiatry, Volume 66, Issue 9, 1 November 2009, Pages 864-870
  Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory, Meytal Fischer, Jonathan Dvash, Hagai Harari, Nufar Perach-Bloom, Yechiel Levkovitz

The drug has a short half life. They tried it at 40 u four times/day for hear pulling problems and it failed to work:
lntranasal Oxytocin in Trichotillomania
BIOL PSYCHIATRY 1996;40:559-561
C. Neill Epperson et al

Half life of drug is 3-15 minutes only… So is there a carryover effect? In:
Continuous IV oxytocin was tried for repetitive behaviours in autism/aspergers:

Neuropsychopharmacology. 2003 Jan;28(1):193-8.
Oxytocin infusion reduces repetitive behaviors in adults with autistic and Asperger’s disorders.
Hollander E, Novotny S, Hanratty M, Yaffe R, DeCaria CM, Aronowitz BR, Mosovich S. abstract here

Results were mixed and there was NO mention of any carryover despite retests in 2-3 weeks.

Comment – OK can make temporarily bit more relaxed and sociable. Not convinced it would last long enough to do more. Could be just another secretin – big hopes – no cigar.

Addendum – talked to one parent of an autistic child. She felt it might help her daughter with periods of high agitation – in the car, at the food court and so on where it could get everyone out of an escalating situation…. Hadn’t thought of that..