Early oxytocin treatment in infants with Prader-Willi syndrome is safe and is associated with better endocrine, metabolic and behavioral outcomes

What Was Tested

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

The researchers aim to document the long-term tolerance and effects of early intranasal OT treatment on the disease trajectory.

Why It Was Studied

Oxytocin (OT) plays an important role in modulating behavior, social interactions and feeding.

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder, is a model of hypothalamic disorder including OT dysfunction.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 17 children taking part.

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

The researchers performed a comparative clinical trial including the 17 children who had received OT as infants in their previous study and compared them to 17 PWS non-exposed children at 3-4 years old.

Secondary endpoints were the other domains of VABS-II, behavior scored by the Child Behavior Checklist, feeding skills, endocrine and metabolic profiles, and brain connectivity on functional magnetic resonance imaging.

How the Study Was Run

Primary endpoint was the total communication score on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-2nd edition (VABS-II).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Oxytocin and Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Author keywords: Behavior, Brain connectivity, Infants, Long-term effects, Metabolism and Prader–Willi syndrome.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Oxytocin in 17 children.

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.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2025 (Orphanet journal of rare diseases), a journal based in England.

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