The Role of Neurohypophyseal Hormones Vasopressin and Oxytocin in Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

What It Covers

Researchers studied Oxytocin and Vasopressin in this review publication.

Although the neurohypophyseal hormones vasopressin (VP) and oxytocin (OT) are mostly known for their role respectively in antidiuresis, and in labour, lactation and maternal behavior, both might exert widespread influences either on emotion and cognition in healthy subjects, showing some gender-related differences.

They interact with each other facilitating shifts between positive socially- oriented and defensive states.

Several data indicate the possible involvement of these neuropeptides in the pathophysiology of psychiatric conditions involving social interactions, such as autism, as well as in schizophrenia and depression.

How the Review Was Done

The researchers analyzed the best of published literature dealing with the relationships between neurohypophyseal hormones and neuropsychiatric conditions like autism (AD), major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD) and schozophrenia, identifying keywords and MeSH terms in Pubmed and then searching them.

The last search was performed on December 2017.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Affect, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Mental Disorders, Oxytocin and Pituitary Gland, Posterior.

The authors tagged it with the keywords mood disorders, schizophrenia and vasopressin.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a review of Oxytocin and Vasopressin.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (Endocrine, metabolic & immune disorders drug targets), a journal based in United Arab Emirates.

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