Oxytocin Nasal Spray

Oxytocin nasal spray might one day form a treatment for schizophrenia after positive results from the first study looking at the effects of oxytocin on patients with the mental illness, reports Biological Psychiatry.

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’.