Can intranasal oxytocin reduce craving in automated addictive behaviours? A systematic review

Houghton, Ben; Kouimtsidis, Christos; Duka, Theodora; Paloyelis, Yannis; Bailey, Alexis

doi:10.1111/bph.15617

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 112 publications

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“…These views have gained supports from animal studies. IAO can decrease craving and relapse related to alcohol, cannabis, opioids, cocaine, or nicotine, etc ( Houghton et al, 2021 ; Van Hedger et al, 2020 ). Activation of OTRs during recovery from opioid overdose could also eliminate or attenuate negative side effects associated with traditional opioid receptor antagonism ( Brackley & Toney, 2021 ).…”

Section: Higher Brain Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Functions of Hypothalamic Oxytocin and its Regulation

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

ASN Neuro

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Oxytocin (OT), a nonapeptide, has a variety of functions. Despite extensive studies on OT over past decades, our understanding of its neural functions and their regulation remains incomplete. OT is mainly produced in OT neurons in the supraoptic nucleus (SON), paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and accessory nuclei between the SON and PVN. OT exerts neuromodulatory effects in the brain and spinal cord. While magnocellular OT neurons in the SON and PVN mainly innervate the pituitary and forebrain regions, and parvocellular OT neurons in the PVN innervate brainstem and spinal cord, the two sets of OT neurons have close interactions histologically and functionally. OT expression occurs at early life to promote mental and physical development, while its subsequent decrease in expression in later life stage accompanies aging and diseases. Adaptive changes in this OT system, however, take place under different conditions and upon the maturation of OT release machinery. OT can modulate social recognition and behaviors, learning and memory, emotion, reward, and other higher brain functions. OT also regulates eating and drinking, sleep and wakefulness, nociception and analgesia, sexual behavior, parturition, lactation and other instinctive behaviors. OT regulates the autonomic nervous system, and somatic and specialized senses. Notably, OT can have different modulatory effects on the same function under different conditions. Such divergence may derive from different neural connections, OT receptor gene dimorphism and methylation, and complex interactions with other hormones. In this review, brain functions of OT and their underlying neural mechanisms as well as the perspectives of their clinical usage are presented.

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Section: Higher Brain Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Functions of Hypothalamic Oxytocin and its Regulation

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

ASN Neuro

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“…Given oxytocin’s putative ability to heighten the salience of social signals 29 – 33 , we reasoned that oxytocin might effectively address this symptom and improve social perception for methamphetamine users. Two, although we do not investigate these outcomes in this paper, oxytocin has demonstrated anti-addiction properties within humans for several other substances 34 and has been shown to attenuate seeking and self-administration of methamphetamine within animal models 35 – 41 . Thus, we reasoned that oxytocin may also show anti-addiction properties for methamphetamine use in humans as well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Oxytocin increases physiological linkage during group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder: a randomized clinical trial

Thorson

McKernan

West

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Patients and psychotherapists often exhibit behavioral, psychological, and physiological similarity. Here, we test whether oxytocin—a neuropeptide that can enhance expressivity and social perception—influences time-lagged “linkage” of autonomic nervous system responses among participants and facilitators during group therapy. Physiological linkage estimates (n = 949) were created from ten cohorts, each with two facilitators (n = 5) and four to six participants (n = 48), over six weekly sessions of group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder. All participants of a cohort received oxytocin or placebo intranasally in a randomized double-blind procedure before each session. Cardiac interbeat intervals (IBI) were measured continuously during sessions to estimate physiological linkage, operationalized as one cohort-mate’s IBI reactivity during one minute predicting another cohort-mate’s IBI reactivity during the following minute. In oxytocin cohorts, participants and facilitators experienced significant physiological linkage to their cohort-mates (i.e., their physiological responses were predicted by the prior responses of their cohort-mates) and significantly more linkage than people in placebo cohorts. Both effects occurred during the first and second sessions but not later sessions. Results suggest that oxytocin may enhance psychosocial processes often associated with linkage—such as social engagement—in groups and highlight oxytocin’s potential to improve group cohesion during group therapy.Clinical Trials Registration: NCT02881177, First published on 26/08/2016.

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“…This indicates that while periods of restricted use might require active levels of inhibition to prevent a return to social media before the intended end of the detox period, craving is unlikely to play an insurmountable role in maintaining periods of abstinence. However, for those individuals in which craving might be a barrier to SOCIAL MEDIA DETOX 22 maintaining a significant detox period, and we report that SMAQ scores are a good predictor of such individual differences, researchers should look to develop ways to reduce these urges (see Houghton et al, 2021 for a recent review on the benefits of intranasal oxytocin in this respect).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Social media use: attitudes, ‘detox’, and craving in typical and frequent users

Robertson¹,

Malin²,

Martin³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Social media has become a core feature of daily life, with 3.8 billion users worldwide. Research on individual differences in social media use has tended to focus on the effect of differing levels of engagement on specific mental health outcomes. In contrast, few studies have directly investigated users’ own perceptions of the impact of their social media use, attempts to regulate their behaviour through periods of ‘detox’, and the drivers that compel them to return to these platforms. Therefore, in this study, we examined users’ current attitudes towards their social media use, their awareness of the impact it had on other aspects of their life, their experiences of self-initiated periods of ‘detox’, and their reasons for re-engagement. A sample of 208 UK social media users (aged 18-28), partitioned into typical and frequent user groups using the SMAQ and the SMES, were tested on all measures. The findings, derived from both quantitative and qualitative data, showed that users across both groups were aware of the impact of overuse, they were able to successfully engage in sustained periods of social media detox, from which they derived positive effects (e.g., on sleep, mood, productivity), and the primary driver for continued use was a desire for social connectedness and information, rather than a ‘craving’ for social media per se. Taken together, these findings provide novel data on users’ perceptions of their social media use, and in particular, evidence in support of the positive benefits of periods of social media ‘detox’.

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Can intranasal oxytocin reduce craving in automated addictive behaviours? A systematic review

Cited by 14 publications

References 112 publications

Neural Functions of Hypothalamic Oxytocin and its Regulation

Neural Functions of Hypothalamic Oxytocin and its Regulation

Oxytocin increases physiological linkage during group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder: a randomized clinical trial

Social media use: attitudes, ‘detox’, and craving in typical and frequent users

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