Where is the love? A double-blind, randomized study of the effects of intranasal oxytocin on stress regulation and aggression

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The present study investigated these competing predictions in the context of a competitive task among 85 healthy human participants (males and females).

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 85 participants were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, both men and women.

Using a randomized double-blind design, participants were assigned to an experimental (intranasal OT) or control (intranasal placebo) group.

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.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Oxytocin.

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

Hostility (Aggression Questionnaire) was measured at home (T1) and in the lab after intranasal administration (T2).

Behavioral aggression was assessed post-intranasal administration.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Aggression, Heart Rate, Hostility, Oxytocin, Parasympathetic Nervous System, Sex Factors and Stress, Psychological.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Cardiovascular reactivity, Heart rate variability and Sex difference.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 85 participants.

The publication is from 2019 (International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology), a journal based in Netherlands.

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