Mitigation of sociocommunicational deficits of autism through oxytocin-induced recovery of medial prefrontal activity: a randomized trial

What Was Tested

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

Sociocommunicational deficits make it difficult for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to understand communication content with conflicting verbal and nonverbal information.

This is slowing clinical application of the neuropeptide.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 40 men were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults and adults, men only.

At the University of Tokyo Hospital, the researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject-crossover, single-site experimental trial in which intranasal oxytocin and placebo were administered.

A total of 40 highly functioning men with ASD participated and were randomized in the trial.

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the men and researchers unaware of who received Oxytocin.

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

In the crossover set-up each of the men took both Oxytocin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Oxytocin, Placebo Effect, Prefrontal Cortex and Social Behavior.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 40 men.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2014 (JAMA psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

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