Efficacy of oxytocin administration early after psychotrauma in preventing the development of PTSD: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

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

Follow-up measurements at 1.5, 3 and 6 months post-trauma are collected to assess PTSD symptom severity (the primary outcome measure).

Why It Was Studied

Oxytocin is a potent regulator of these processes.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 220 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and multicenter.

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

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.

More than one site took part, so the patients came from several places.

A time span of 10 days appears in the methods.

Baseline PTSD symptom severity scores and neuroendocrine and psychophysiological measures will be collected within 10 days after trauma.

Other measures of symptoms of psychopathology, and neuroendocrine and psychophysiological disorders are secondary outcome measures.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Fear, Netherlands, Oxytocin and Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 220 patients over 10 days.

Results are reported in around 2 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2014 (BMC psychiatry), a journal based in England.

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