Intranasal Oxytocin to Prevent Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Emergency Department Patients

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin.

Therefore, the researchers investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin administration early after trauma on subsequent clinician-rated PTSD symptoms.

The researchers then assessed whether baseline characteristics moderated the intervention's effects.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 107 participants taking part.

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

The intention-to-treat sample included 107 participants (oxytocin: n = 53; placebo: n = 54).

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

Running at several centres spread the Oxytocin study over different clinics and patient groups.

The timeline in the abstract includes 10 days.

The researchers performed a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) was administered at baseline (within 10 days posttrauma) and at 1.5, 3, and 6 months posttrauma.

What Was Measured

The researchers then assessed whether baseline characteristics moderated the intervention's effects.

The subject headings attached to it are Emergency Service, Hospital, Oxytocin and Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Early intervention, Intranasal oxytocin, PTSD, Prevention, Psychotrauma and RCT.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 107 participants over 10 days.

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 2017 (Biological psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page.