Dose-dependent social-cognitive effects of intranasal oxytocin delivered with novel Breath Powered device in adults with autism spectrum disorder: a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind crossover trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin.

The researchers observed an omnibus main effect of treatment on the primary outcome measure of overt emotion salience as measured by emotional ratings of faces (η2=0.18).

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 17 adults were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults and adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

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

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 adults nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Oxytocin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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

In the crossover set-up each of the adults took both Oxytocin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

The researchers observed an omnibus main effect of treatment on the primary outcome measure of overt emotion salience as measured by emotional ratings of faces (η2=0.18).

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cognition, Emotions, Facial Expression, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Oxytocics and Oxytocin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 17 adults.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2017 (Translational psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

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