Intranasal Oxytocin Selectively Modulates Social Perception, Craving, and Approach Behavior in Subjects With Alcohol Use Disorder

What Was Tested

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

The researchers performed a pilot, laboratory-based, preclinical trial of oxytocin in subjects with alcohol abuse (as per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 Edition criteria) to evaluate therapeutic potential and assess tolerability.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Social perceptual ability, cue-induced craving, and approach bias for alcohol and appetitive imagery were quantified after intranasal oxytocin and placebo administration to 32 nontreatment-seeking individuals with alcohol abuse in a double-blind, crossover study.

Because attachment style can moderate the effects of oxytocin, the researchers also explored whether attachment style moderated oxytocin's effects on their behavioral measures.

How the Study Was Run

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

The participants 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.

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

PubMed files the paper under topics including Alcohol-Related Disorders, Behavior, Addictive, Craving, Oxytocin, Pilot Projects and Social Perception.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 7 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 (Journal of addiction medicine), a journal based in Netherlands.

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