Intranasal oxytocin reduces psychotic symptoms and improves Theory of Mind and social perception in schizophrenia

Negative correlation between cerebrospinal fluid oxytocin levels and negative symptoms of male patients with schizophrenia

“…Rubin et al (2010) reported that higher peripheral oxytocin levels were associated with more prosocial behaviors in female patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, previous studies have demonstrated improvement of social behaviors with administration of intranasal oxytocin (Macdonald and Macdonald, 2010;Pedersen et al, 2011). Since strong relationships between negative symptoms and social difficulties have been demonstrated in schizophrenia (Weinberg et al, 2009), the present finding associating higher CSF oxytocin levels with lower negative subscale is in accord with what has previously been described for peripheral oxytocin.…”

Neurophysiological effects of acute oxytocin administration: systematic review and meta-analysis of placebo-controlled imaging studies

“…The current links between OXT and DA and the pronounced effects over tasks in the social domain mean that OXT is of particular interest to clinical groups. 125 Preliminary studies have shown its potential efficacy in patients with schizophrenia [126][127][128] and autism 129 and have shown behavioural effects in patients with schizophrenia, 130,131 depression, 32 generalized anxiety disorder 28,29 and autism. 132 Importantly, the prosocial effects of OXT may offer potential for synergistic pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic treatments of these severe disorders.…”

Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin

“…As oxytocin and vasopressin systems contribute to different aspects of brain physiology in different species thus having a role in speciestypical social behaviors (Goodson, 2013), it is important to sample from a wide variety of animal systems to get a broad picture of both the potential and limitations of these systems in humans. The ability to translate appropriately across species and developmental time points becomes imperative as the enthusiasm grows for intranasal oxytocin and vasopressin therapies in various developmental disabilities and mental illness (Guastella et al, 2009(Guastella et al, , 2010Andari et al, 2010;Feifel et al, 2010;Goldman et al, 2011;Pedersen et al, 2011;Simeon et al, 2011;Hall et al, 2012). In addition to gathering data from a wide variety of species, it will be important to understand the behavioral context in which oxytocin and vasopressin function.…”