Complexity of oxytocin׳s effects in a chronic cocaine dependent population

What Was Tested

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

Behavioral and neuroplastic changes occurring in the development of addiction parallel those that occur in social bonding.

This has led to speculation that drugs of abuse co-opt systems that subserve social attachment to shift attachment to drugs of abuse.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Oxytocin could be set against what happens without it.

Each person switched between Oxytocin and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

What Was Measured

In this double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, 23 cocaine-dependent inpatients in court-ordered treatment completed 4 task sessions measuring desire to use cocaine, cue-induced craving, monetary reward decisions and social cognition.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Analysis of Variance, Antipsychotic Agents, Anxiety, Chronic Disease, Circadian Rhythm, Cocaine-Related Disorders and Cues.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Addiction, Cue reactivity, Oxytocin, Reward and Social cognition.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The publication is from 2014 (European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology), a journal based in Netherlands.

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