The effect of intranasal oxytocin administration on acute cold pressor pain: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, within-participants crossover investigation

What Was Tested

This controlled clinical trial looks at Oxytocin.

This study examined the effect of synthetic oxytocin delivered intranasally on acute pain sensitivity using a placebo-controlled, double-blind, within-participant crossover design.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, both men and women.

Thirty-seven (18 were male) pain-free young adults underwent two laboratory sessions separated by 1 week.

How the Study Was Run

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

Blinding on both sides kept the participants 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 participants took both Oxytocin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Each session consisted of baseline, administration, second baseline, pain, and recovery phases, completed in a fixed order.

Blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were measured at 1-minute intervals throughout each phase.

Pain was induced by submersing the nondominant hand in cold (2°C) water.

Pain threshold, intensity, unpleasantness, and Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2 pain descriptors were rated immediately after pain testing.

Mood was assessed using visual analog scales after baseline, second baseline, and pain phases.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acute Pain, Oxytocin and Pain Measurement.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study of Oxytocin.

Its findings take up roughly 5 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 (Psychosomatic medicine), a journal based in United States.

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