Markers of the maternal oxytocin system and mother-infant bonding during the first postpartum year.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of this study was to investigate genetic, epigenetic, and endogenous markers of the oxytocinergic system in relation to mother-infant bonding during the first year postpartum.

Furthermore, they provided blood samples to assess endogenous oxytocin (OT) and three OXTR single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Why It Was Studied

The oxytocinergic system is central to early mother-infant bonding, yet, its epigenetic and hormonal dynamics during the postpartum period are not well understood.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

A sample of 66 mothers (mean age = 32.0 years, SD = 3.6 years) with bonding problems (N = 36) undergoing a neurofeedback intervention and control mothers (N = 30) participated in this longitudinal randomized clinical trial.

The researchers measured DNA methylation (DNAm) of the oxytocin gene (OXT), the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR), and the Cluster of Differentiation 38 (CD38) gene in peripheral blood cells collected at three, six, and 12 months postpartum.

At the same timepoints, mothers completed questionnaires on maternal bonding, depressive symptoms, and maternal self-confidence.

Data was analyzed using multilevel models.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Oxytocin, Receptors, Oxytocin, Postpartum Period, Object Attachment, Mother-Child Relations, DNA Methylation and ADP-ribosyl Cyclase 1.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Bonding problems, Caregiving, Depression, Epigenetics, Postpartum mental health and Single nucleotide polymorphism.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Oxytocin.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2026 (Progress in neurobiology), a journal based in England.

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