15 participants were given doses of oxytocin nasal spray over a period of 3 weeks, and most reported measurable improvements in their symptoms at the end of the study.

Each participant in the trial were given either a placebo or actual doses of oxytocin nasal spray for 3 weeks, then a weeks break, and then the opposite, again for 3 weeks. 

Patients averaged an 8% reduction in schizophrenic symptoms after recieving the oxytocin spray.  David Feifel heralded his studies findings as ‘proof of concept that there’s therapeutic potential here’.

The experiment was performed on one person only, but if accepted does appear to have implications both for understanding how oxytocin is triggered in human relationships and also in taking seriously the idea that online networking is just as ‘real’ as offline human interaction.

In a sense, social networking is undeniably safer and more controlled than that in the real world – you can easily block unwanted contacts for example.  Therefore, it shouldn’t be altogether surprising that the ‘trust hormone’ is easily switched on when interacting online.

Dr Carsten De Dreu, of the University of Amsterdam, said that the phenomenon was known as “parochial altruism” or “tend and defend”.

This meant that boosted levels of oxytocin produced “in-group love” and “out-group aggression”, he said.

Dr De Dreu, who published the findings in Science, said: “Oxytocin is a double edged sword. It makes you kinder to your group but more aggressive to those outside.”

Source : Love Hormone Oxytocin helps soldiers like each other and hate the enemy

source : Drugs improve social skills of autism sufferers.

Eric Hollander, who led the research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, believes that oxytocin could have an important impact on the core symptoms of autistic spectrum disorders and could form the basis for the first successful medications to treat autistic symptoms.

Oxytocin seems to be the first investigative treatment approach that holds promise for treating core symptoms like social cognition problems.

Click to read more on how Oxytocin helps autistics recognise emotions.

 The Hebrew University researchers evaluated altruism using a game that included real payoffs. Subjects made decisions regarding a series of social dilemmas concerning the distribution of money for themselves and another player and were rated as either prosocial (looking to maximize joint outcomes), or proself (looking to maximize their individual outcomes). The researchers found that individuals who carried a simple variant (G rather than T) in one DNA letter located in the oxytocin receptor were much more likely to share their endowment with another player and to prefer prosocial outcomes.

 

More about the study linking sex, oxytocin and bonding ..

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 scientists the first indication that the hormone may play a role in the psychological bonding between mother and child.  Further research has found increased levels of Oxytocin are associated with feelings of less stress and greater trust and empathy, leading the hormone to earn the media tag of ‘the love hormone’ or ‘the cuddle hormone’.

There has recently been an explosion of research across various institutes across the world seeking to confirm the role of Oxytocin in creating empathic psychological states and its consequent possible benefits in treating psychological problems ranging from social anxiety to autism and schizophrenia.

It is unlikely that we will be seeing Oxytocin drugs or pills anytime soon, as it has been found that the only effective delivery method to get the hormone inside the blood stream is to inhale it through the nose.  Thus, it is likely that any Oxytocin medical or commercial uses of Oxytocin in the near future will come in the form of Oxytocin nasal sprays.

Here is a brief list of what Oxytocin Nasal Sprays might do for individuals and for society :

• Reduce social anxiety and shyness in individuals
• Treat the symptoms of Autism and asperger’s syndrome
• Treat the secondary and possibly even the primary symptoms (delusions) of paranoid schizophrenics
• Help couples maintain relationships
• Reduce levels of stress
• Increase attractiveness to the opposite sex
• Help businessmen make sales (by increasing trust and empathy)
• Help people to  pass interviews
• Reduce anti-social behaviour in schools, crowds etc
• Be (misused) by advertisers and politicians seeking to ‘sell’ their goods or promises

It’s not difficult to see why interest in Oxytocin is growing, not only are there big bucks to be made from successful commercial and medical applications, the hormone could have radical effects on society and culture itself.  If you think back to the changes wrought in the 1960′s due to the widespread use of mood altering drugs such as LSE and consider that Oxytocin might become a safe and legal substance providing the positive social effects and more from such drugs, without the negative ones, then we really could be on the brink of a new flower power era.