Influence of a "warm touch" support enhancement intervention among married couples on ambulatory blood pressure, oxytocin, alpha amylase, and cortisol

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To investigate whether a support intervention (warm touch enhancement) influences physiological stress systems that are linked to important health outcomes.

Growing evidence points to a protective effect of social and emotional support on both morbidity and mortality.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults and adults, both men and women.

In this study, 34 healthy married couples (n = 68), aged 20 to 39 years (mean = 25.2 years), were randomly assigned to a "behavior monitoring" control group or participated in a 4-week intervention study in which clinic levels of plasma oxytocin, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, and salivary cortisol and alpha amylase were obtained pre and post intervention, at the same time salivary oxytocin was taken at home during weeks 1 and 4.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Oxytocin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory, Circadian Rhythm, Empathy, Hydrocortisone, Marriage and Oxytocin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Oxytocin in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 3 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2008 (Psychosomatic medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.