Intranasal oxytocin administration prior to exposure therapy for arachnophobia impedes treatment response

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Recent years have seen the emergence of a new paradigm for treatment of anxiety disorders focusing on development of drugs that facilitate psychotherapies via targeted effects on neuroplasticity.

One compound that has generated interest in this regard is oxytocin (OT), a mammalian neuropeptide that modulates activity of the neurocircuit mediating fear extinction and memory processes.

Who Took Part

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

The researchers conducted a small proof-of-concept trial investigating the effect of pretreatment intranasal OT administration on a brief, single-session exposure treatment for arachnophobia (fear of spiders).

The study was randomized, double-blind, and placebo controlled (n = 13 placebo, 11 females; n = 10 OT, 8 females) with 1-week and 1-month follow-up assessments.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was 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.

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

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

Dependent measures attended to arachnophobia symptoms (self-report), phobic behavior (behavioral avoidance of spider task), and treatment credibility/therapeutic alliance.

What Was Measured

Here, the researchers tested the hypothesis that OT treatment would facilitate response to exposure therapy in patients with specific phobia.

The subject headings attached to it are Combined Modality Therapy, Fear, Implosive Therapy, Mental Processes, Oxytocin, Phobic Disorders and Premedication.

Author keywords: CBT/cognitive behavior therapy, anxiety/anxiety disorders, clinical trials and phobia/phobic disorders.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

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 2015 (Depression and anxiety), a journal based in United States.

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