Effect of oxytocin on craving and stress response in marijuana-dependent individuals: a pilot study

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The current study evaluated the impact of oxytocin pretreatment on craving, stress, and anxiety responses following a psychosocial stress task in marijuana-dependent individuals.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 16 participants taking part.

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

In a laboratory setting, baseline measurements of craving (assessed using the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire; MCQ), salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), stress, and anxiety were collected in 16 participants (age 19-40) meeting DSM-IV criteria for marijuana dependence.

Measurements were repeated pre-TSST, immediately post-TSST, and 5-, 35-, and 60-min post-TSST.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and pilot study.

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

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

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Oxytocin study would be practical.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anxiety, Dehydroepiandrosterone, Hydrocortisone, Marijuana Abuse, Nasal Sprays, Oxytocin and Pilot Projects.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 16 participants.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2013 (Psychopharmacology), a journal based in Germany.

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