Synthetic oxytocin used in an experimental study to promote socialization in children with diagnosis from disorder of the autism spectrum did not produce the desired results.
“This is really a big setback“Said Dr. Linmarie Sikich, researcher of the Duke University who led the US study: “We were really hoping to find an advantage and not are succeeded to locate it nowhere”.
The study was published on the New England Journal of Medicines.
Synthetic oxytocin: why it didn’t work
The government-funded study of United States used a synthetic form of oxytocin, a hormone produced in the brain that stimulates uterus contractions and helps mothers bond with their newborns.
Experiments in mice have suggested that the hormone may promote sociability, and small studies have suggested it may have similar effects in children with autism, who often struggle with social interaction.
Nearly 300 children with autism initially enrolled and 250 of them completed the six-month study. Children, aged 3-17, received daily doses of a nasal spray containing oxytocin or an inactive ingredient. for seven weeks, with subsequent gradual dose increases. The dose could be maintained or reduced if required.
Small improvements in behavior occurred in both groups, but they didn’t have a significant impact, Vikich explained. Separate analyzes showed no differences in outcomes in children with mild or severe autism.
One patient in the oxytocin group had a serious side effect that was thought to be caused by the hormone: sedation while driving which led to a car accident. Aside from this episode, there were no major safety concerns in the hormone and placebo groups.
About 1 in 54 children in the United States have autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Behavioral therapy is the most effective treatment to date.
Oxytocin is a natural hormone and chemical messenger. He is best known for his ability to stimulate labor and the release of breast milk in women. Synthetic oxytocin is sometimes given intravenously to pregnant women to induce labor.
Based on the first results of the research, some doctors have started prescribing it for children with autism. Some promoters call it “the love hormone”. Larry Young, an Emory University scientist who does animal research with oxytocin, said it’s too early to give it up as a cure for autism. Scientist He specified that the hormone is better understood today than when the study began nearly eight years ago.
“It makes the social world around us more vibrant in our brain, so let’s pay attention to itYoung said, comparing the potential effect in people with autism to removing frost from a windshield that prevents them from reading social cues and emotions.
Without accompanying drug treatment with behavioral therapy, however, this effect could be negative, admitted the scholar who cited a hypothetical example in which a child with autism receives a dose of oxytocin every morning and begins to pay more attention to other children on the school bus. What if enhanced attention helps the child realize that children are mean and bullying?
“This is a very important study because it says that willy-nilly only the daily administration of oxytocin will not bring improvements “, Young continued: “We hope that doctors and parents learn from this and say that this is not something we give as a “vitamin” without other treatments. “
The son of Joyce Galaverna he was 13 when he enrolled in the study in 2015. He tolerated the treatments but his behavior showed no improvement: “Levels of irritability and anxiety remained virtually the same throughout the study“, he said. The North Carolina family never knew if he had received the oxytocin or the placebo.
Although the outcome of the study was a disappointment, Galaverna said her son, Andre, improved after the pains of puberty subsided. and enrolled in a private school. She finished high school in June and now has a part-time job.
The autism researcher at the University of Virginia Kevin Pelphrey claimed that other studies have shown that nasal administration of oxytocin can lead to changes in brain regions involved in social behavior and that the study’s use of a behavior checklist to evaluate the hormone’s effectiveness may have limited its results.
Brain-based measures could be helpful in determining which children might respond best to the hormone: “Much work remains to be done in understanding how oxytocin could be used to improve social function in children with autism.“Concluded Pelphrey.