Oxytocin influences avoidant reactions to social threat in adults with borderline personality disorder

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

In a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study, 13 BPD patients and 13 controls performed a dot probe task to examine attentional biases to happy and angry faces after intranasal application of oxytocin or placebo.

Why It Was Studied

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by interpersonal dysfunction, emotional instability, impulsivity, and risk-taking behavior.

Recent research has focused on the role of oxytocin in BPD, with mixed results as regards the processing of social stimuli.

Who Took Part

The study group was 13 patients.

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

Childhood trauma was examined using the childhood trauma questionnaire.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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

As a double-blind Oxytocin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Oxytocin, giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anger, Borderline Personality Disorder, Case-Control Studies, Facial Expression, Oxytocin, Social Perception and Surveys and Questionnaires.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 13 patients.

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.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2013 (Human psychopharmacology), a journal based in England.

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