Oxytocin, PTSD, and sexual abuse are associated with attention network intrinsic functional connectivity

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.

Childhood maltreatment is linked to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in adulthood.

Neural attention network function contributes to resilience against PTSD following maltreatment; oxytocin administration alters functional connectivity differentially among resilient to PTSD groups.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 39 adults taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled 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.

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

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Brain, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Oxytocin, Sex Offenses and Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Childhood maltreatment, Dorsal attention network, Posttraumatic stress disorder, Resting-state functional connectivity and Ventral attention network.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 39 adults in people with sexual function & libido (women and men).

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2021 (Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging), a journal based in Netherlands.

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