Memory response to oxytocin predicts relationship dissolution over 18 months

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin.

To examine the role of oxytocin in human romantic bonding, the researchers examined its effect on recall of memories of past and current romantic experiences as predictors of relationship dissolution.

Why It Was Studied

Oxytocin is known for its role in pair bonding in non-human animals.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 48 participants were involved.

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

In a placebo-controlled, within-subject, randomized experiment, 48 participants (24♀; 16 single) self-administered intranasal oxytocin and completed an autobiographical memory test.

Participants in a current romantic relationship reported on their relationship status 18 months later.

How the Study Was Run

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

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Oxytocin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Emotions, Family Relations, Longitudinal Studies, Memory, Episodic, Mental Recall, Oxytocin and Social Behavior.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Autobiographical memory, Intranasal oxytocin, Relationship dissolution, Romantic relationships and Self-referential processing.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 48 participants.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (Psychoneuroendocrinology), a journal based in England.

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