Intranasal oxytocin versus placebo for hyperphagia and repetitive behaviors in children with Prader-Willi Syndrome: A randomized controlled pilot trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin in the context of hyperparathyroidism, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The effects of intranasal oxytocin and placebo on hyperphagia and repetitive behaviors were compared in children and adolescents with Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS).

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as children and teenagers.

Children and adolescents with PWS were enrolled in an 8-week double-blind placebo-controlled intranasal oxytocin randomized trial.

Twenty-three (23) subjects were assigned to oxytocin (N = 11) or placebo (N = 12).

How the Study Was Run

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

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

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Oxytocin study would be practical.

Hyperphagia was measured with the Hyperphagia Questionnaire (HQ), and repetitive behavior was measured with Repetitive Behavior Scale- Revised (RBS-R).

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Hyperphagia, Oxytocin, Pilot Projects and Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Author keywords: Repetitive behaviors and Satiety.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2021 (Journal of psychiatric research), a journal based in England.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, Hyperparathyroidism research.