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Hormone-infused nasal spray found to help people with autism
Giving autistic individuals the hormone oxytocin may reduce their 'abnormal repetitive behaviors, according to a new study.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, Eric Hollander and colleagues administered oxytocin infusions to 15 adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. They report that subjects receiving oxytocin exhibited a significant reduction in repetitive behaviors when compared to those receiving the placebo infusion. Ile researchers conclude, "Repetitive behavior in autism spectrum disorders may be related to abnormalities in the oxytocin system, and may be partially ameliorated by synthetic oxytocin infusion."
Animal research has shown that oxytocin plays a powerful role in socialization and bonding. One study (see ARRI 1511) found that mice genetically engineered to lack the gene for oxytocin appear to have severe deficits in "social memory," failing to recognize mice to which they had previously been exposed. Earlier research by Hollander et al. appeared to implicate the use of pit6cin (a form of synthetic oxytocin) during delivery as a factor in autism.
"Oxytocin infusion reduces repetitive behaviors in adults with autistic and Asperger's disorders," E. Hollander, S. Novotny, M. Hanratty, R. Yaffe, C. M. DeCaria, B. R. Aronowitz, and S. Mosovich, Newpvchopharmacolqgy, Vol. 28,
No. 1, January 2003, 193-8. Address: Eric Hollander, ML Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L Levy Place, New York, NY 10029.
Eric Hollander, Jennifer Bartz, William Chaplin, Ann Phillips, Jennifer Sumner, Latha Soorya, Evdokia Anagnostou, and Stacey Wasserman
Background - 0.%-
ytocin dysfunction might contribute to the development of social deficits in autism, a core symptom domain and potential target for intervention. This study explored the effect of intravenous axytocin administration on the retention of social information in autism.
Methods: Oxytocin and placebo challenges were administered to 15 adult subjects diagnosed with autism orAspergers disorder, and comprehension of affective speech (happy, indifferent, angry, and sad) in neutral content sentences was tested. Results: All subjects showed improvements in affective speech comprehension from pre- to post-infusion: however, whereas those who received placebo first tended to revert to baseline after a delay, those who received oa-vtocinfirst retained the ability to accurately assign gn emotional significance to speech intonation on the speech comprehension task.
Conclusions: These results are consistent with studies linking axylocin to social recognition in rodents as well as suidies linking oAytocin to prosocial behavior in humans and suggest that axytocin might facilitate social information processing in those uith autism. These findings also provide preliminary support for the use of oA-ytocin in the treatment of autism.