The Daily Mail reports that researchers are using oxytocin nasal spray to treat women with interstitial cystitis, or chronic inflammation of the bladder wall. The trial is based on the observation that breast feeding women (who have naturally raised levels of oxytocin) often have cystitis symptoms reduced. Those behind the trial at the University of Alabama believe [...]
A new study hasfound that participants with Asperger’s Syndrome (high functioning autism) who were given an oxytocin injection were better able to interpret facial expressions and had more memories of people’s emotional states than those taking a placebo .
Eric Hollander, who led the research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, believes that [...]
Many studies have been published recently linking oxytocin to social behaviours such as trust, altruism, and even sexual attractiveness. Now, researchers at an Israeli university have identified a link between such behaviours and a specific variation in a person’s DNA that acts as a brain receptor for oxytocin.
The Hebrew University researchers evaluated altruism using a game that included real [...]
An oxytocin study being carried out at the Stanford University School of Medicine hopes to discover what role, if any, the hormone plays in causing autism. The importance of oxytocin in forming social bonds is now widely documented. At this stage, the inference that the ‘trust hormone’ might be lacking or in some way not working effectively [...]
A study published recently in the Journal of Theoretical Biology warned that women seeking committed males should avoid having sex on the first date. The reason? The rush of Oxytocin released into the female brain after sex can trick her into bonding too early with the man, before she has had a chance to weigh [...]
I thought it would be useful to summarise why Oxytocin is attracting so much scientific and media interest.
Oxytocin is a hormone, and therefore, a naturally occurring substance produced by the human body. Women have this hormone in their systems to a greater level than men, and it has been found to increase during and after child birth, giving [...]
A study carried out by the University of Michigan found that caregivers tended to have increased life expectancy. What is interesting about this study is that the results have been interpreted as indicating that the physiological benefits associated with caregiving bring are responsible for the increase and that those physiological benefits are caused by an [...]
More evidence of the role that Oxytocin plays in regulating social behaviour has been uncovered by researchers at the University of Zurich. By giving a dose of the hormone Oxytocin to arguing couples via a nasal spray, they found that the stress hormone Cortisol would be reduced and that conflict levels were less than in [...]
Eric Hollander, a psychiatrist and expert on autism, is to give a talk on the latest research on the possible use of oxytocin in the treatment of autism. Hollander himself has recently led a team of researchers which found that oxytocin enhanced the ability to recognize emotions such as anger or happiness in the tone [...]
The corallation between the reduction of feelings of stress and the raising of oxytocin in the blood stream is seemingly borne out in a new study almost every day. There can be little remaining doubt that oxytocin is the chemical instrument that the body uses when it wants and needs to ‘feel good’. From reduced stress, lowered blood pressure, [...]
