The effect of intranasal oxytocin on the perception of affective touch and multisensory integration in anorexia nervosa: protocol for a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a clinical study.

Here, the researchers aim to investigate the effect of IN-OT on the perception of affective, C-tactile-optimal touch, known to be impaired in AN and on multisensory integration processes underlying a body ownership illusion (ie, rubber hand illusion).

Why It Was Studied

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterised by restriction of energy intake, fears of gaining weight and related body image disturbances.

The oxytocinergic system has been proposed as a pathophysiological candidate for AN.

Who Took Part

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

The data from this double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study will be analysed using linear mixed models that allow the use of both fixed (treatment levels) and random (subjects) effects in the same analysis.

To address their main hypotheses, separate analyses will be run for the affective touch task, where the primary outcome dependent variable will be the pleasantness of the touch, and for the rubber hand illusion, where the researchers will investigate multisensory integration quantified as subjective embodiment towards the rubber hand.

How the Study Was Run

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

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 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.

In the latter, the researchers will manipulate the synchronicity of touch and the size of the hand.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anorexia Nervosa, Body Dysmorphic Disorders, Body Image, Oxytocics, Oxytocin, Physical Stimulation and Sensation.

Author keywords: affective touch, interoception, intranasal oxytocin and multisensory integration.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The publication is from 2019 (BMJ open), a journal based in England.

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