Asian Scientist (Jul. 22, 2013) – The so-called trust hormone, oxytocin, may not improve the symptoms of children with autism, a clinical trial in Australia has found.
Autism is a complex condition of unknown cause in which children exhibit reduced interest in other people, impaired social communication skills and repetitive behaviors.
Previous research had suggested that oxytocin, a hormone with powerful effects on brain activity linked to the formation on social bonds, may benefit children with the disorder.
Research in healthy subjects had shown that oxytocin can increase levels of trust and eye-gazing and improve their identification of emotions in others.
“Many parents of children with autism are already obtaining and using oxytocin nasal spray with their child, and clinical trials of the spray’s effects are underway all over the world,” said Professor Mark Dadds, a leader of the research team.
However, results from a large study, to be published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, suggest that the effectiveness of oxytocin as a new treatment for autism may be limited.
The researchers conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial of 38 boys aged between seven and 16 years of age diagnosed with autism. Half of the boys were randomly chosen to receive a nasal spray of oxytocin on four consecutive days while the rest were administered a placebo.
The boys were assessed twice before treatment, three times during the treatment week, immediately afterwards and three months later, with a parent present. Factors such as eye contact with the parent, responsiveness, warmth, speech, positive body language, repetitive behaviors, and recognition of facial emotions were observed.
“We found that, compared to a placebo, oxytocin did not significantly improve emotion recognition, social interaction skills, repetitive behaviors, or general behavioral adjustment,” said Professor Dadds.
“This is in contrast to a handful of previous smaller studies which have shown some positive effects on repetitive behaviors, social memory and emotion processing.”
“These studies, however, were limited by having small numbers of participants and/or by looking at the effects of single doses of oxytocin on specific behaviors or cognitive effects while the participants had the oxytocin in their system.”
According to Professor Dadds, the results of this study in a larger group of patients suggest that caution should be exercised in recommending nasal oxytocin as a general treatment for young people with autism.
Although the study shows that oxytocin may not be generally effective in treating children with autism, Professor Dadds thinks that there may be a subgroup of children for whom oxytocin could be beneficial, and research is needed to determine who responds to it and how best to deliver it.
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Source: UNSW; Photo: hepingting/Flickr.
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