Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Stress-Induced Cigarette Craving in Daily Smokers

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of intranasal OT on stress-induced cigarette craving in regular smokers after 12 h of abstinence.

Why It Was Studied

One factor that is known to contribute to relapse is stress, making the stress response an important target for treatment.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, both men and women.

Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group PP (n = 16) received PBO before and after the stress/control tasks, Group OP (n = 16) received OT before the tasks and PBO after, and Group PO (n = 16) received PBO before the tasks and OT shortly after completing the tasks.

Cigarette craving as well as subjective and physiological responses to stress was assessed.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Oxytocin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Oxytocin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

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

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Behavior, Addictive, Blood Pressure, Craving, Heart Rate, Oxytocics, Oxytocin and Smokers.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

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 2020 (Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco), a journal based in England.

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