Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin Administration on Sexual Functions in Healthy Women: A Laboratory Paradigm

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin in the context of sexual function & libido (women and men), published as a randomized controlled trial.

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has a variety of physiological functions in maternal behavior and attachment including sexual behavior.

Based on animal research and their previous human studies, the researchers set out to investigate intranasal administration of OXT and hypothesized that OXT should be able to modulate sexual function in women.

Who Took Part

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

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover laboratory setting, the acute effects of intranasal administered OXT (24 international units) on sexual drive, arousal, orgasm, and refractory aspects of sexual behavior were analyzed in 27 healthy females (mean age ± SD, 27.52 ± 8.04) together with physiological parameters using vaginal photoplethysmography.

How the Study Was Run

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

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.

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

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

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Arousal, Orgasm, Oxytocics, Oxytocin, Photoplethysmography and Sexual Behavior.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in people with sexual function & libido (women and men).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2018 (Journal of clinical psychopharmacology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, Sexual function & libido (women and men) research.