Effects of multiple-dose intranasal oxytocin administration on social responsiveness in children with autism: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 61 boys taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were children, both men and women.

Secondary outcomes included a questionnaire-based assessment of repetitive behaviors, anxiety, and attachment.

The double-blind phase was followed by a 4-week single-blind phase during which all participants received intranasal oxytocin.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, single-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group 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.

In this single-blind Oxytocin study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

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

Effects of oxytocin were assessed immediately after the administration period and at a follow-up, 4 weeks after the last administration.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Oxytocin, Autistic Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Author keywords: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Randomized controlled trial and Social responsiveness.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and single-blind study of Oxytocin in 61 boys.

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 2023 (Molecular autism), a journal based in England.

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