Oxytocin Effects on Self and Other Processing

What Was Tested

The trial (not phased) is built around Oxytocin.

It had two arms (groups): Oxytocin (experimental) and Placebo (placebo comparator).

Oxytoxin nasal spray.

Placebo nasal spray.

The registry classes the interventions as drug.

More on the Plan

All subjects completed a range of questionnaires measuring personality and affective traits and levels of anxiety before self-administration: Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) , State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) , Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), self-esteem scale (SES).

Subjects were asked to decide whether to buy or sell their own or others' (their mothers'/ fathers'/ classmate'/ strangers') possessions at various prices.

Indifference point and brain activation were inluded into analysis as dependent variables.

Who Took Part

The registry lists 44 actual participants took part.

It was open to men only aged from 18 years up to 27 years.

Healthy volunteers could join, not only people with the condition.

Examples of who could join: Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders.

The full record lists 1 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria; among the exclusions: history of head injury;; medical or psychiatric illness.

How the Study Was Run

It was run as a randomized, parallel-group and double-blind study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

The Oxytocin group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Oxytocin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Those kept unaware of assignments: participant and investigator.

It started in 2015-11 with completion listed for 2016-03.

It ran at 1 site in China.

Its stated primary purpose is basic science.

What Was Measured

The main thing measured (primary outcome): Compared the indifference point between buy and sell conditions during the price phase and the specific brain region activation between oxytocin and placebo groups (time frame: 1 hour).

What This Means in Plain Language

Put simply, this is a not phased, randomized trial of Oxytocin in 44 people.

The trial is marked completed; no results are posted to the registry yet, so nothing here describes outcomes.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.