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Oxytocin

Where to purchase:

• Oxytocin at Amazon.com

News and Research:

• Men With Sex Addiction Have Overload of 'Love Hormone' Oxytocin - Medscape, 2/3/22 - "Oxytocin, secreted by the pituitary gland, is known to play a role in sexual behavior, but has not been examined in HD men, the researchers said. At baseline, the mean plasma oxytocin was 31.0 pM in the HD patients, which was significantly higher than the mean 16.9 pM in healthy controls (P < .001). However, the 30 HD men who underwent CBT showed significant improvement in oxytocin levels, from a mean pretreatment level of 30.5 to a mean posttreatment level of 20.2 pM"
• 'Love Hormone' Could Hold Key to Treating COVID - WebMD, 10/9/20 - "All of these factors indicate that oxytocin may have potential as a targeted treatment for cytokine storms in COVID-19 patients" - See oxytocin at Amazon.com.
• 'Love hormone' oxytocin could be used to treat cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's - Science Daily, 7/20/20 - "oxytocin―the hormone that we commonly know to induce feelings of love and well-being―can also effectively reverse some of the damage caused by amyloid plaques in the learning and memory center of the brain in an animal model of Alzheimer's ... Oxytocin was recently found to be involved in regulating learning and memory performance, but so far, no previous study deals with the effect of oxytocin on Aβ-induced cognitive impairment ... This is the first study in the world that has shown that oxytocin can reverse Aβ-induced impairments in the mouse hippocampus" - See Oxytocin at Amazon.com but the nasal spray has bad ratings.  If you Google it, a lot of places are selling the injectable for animals.  You might be able to get the injectable.  You might be able to get the injectable from a place like this but I'm betting the prescription costs an arm and a leg.  A vial is only $23 if you can get the prescription.  The version for pets is only $10.
• What does the 'love hormone' do? It's complicated - Science Daily, 6/22/20
• How 'love hormone' spurs sociability - Science Daily, 9/28/17 - "How does this increased dopamine release during social interaction come about? ... It turns out that another chemical -- oxytocin -- is pulling the strings ... oxytocin secreted in the ventral tegmental area by neurons originating in the paraventricular nucleus fosters sociability by binding to receptors on the dopamine-secreting neurons that compose the tract running from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens, enhancing the firing of the reward-circuit tract ... With so much hatred and anger in the world ... what could possibly be more important than understanding the mechanisms in the brain that make us want to be friendly with other people?" - See Oxy Pro (Oxytocin) Nasal Spray at International Anti-aging Systems.
• Oxytocin turns up the volume of your social environment - Science Daily, 9/20/17
• The 'Love Hormone' May Quiet Tinnitus - WebMD, 9/23/16 - "patients who received oxytocin reported a significant reduction in tinnitus, compared with those who received the placebo" - See oxytocin at Amazon.com.
• Oxytocin enhances spirituality: The biology of awe - Science Daily, 9/21/16 - "men reported a greater sense of spirituality shortly after taking oxytocin and a week later. Participants who took oxytocin also experienced more positive emotions during meditation ... Spirituality and meditation have each been linked to health and well-being in previous research ... Participants who received oxytocin were also more inclined to view themselves as interconnected with other people and living things, giving higher ratings to statements such as "All life is interconnected" and "There is a higher plane of consciousness or spirituality that binds all people."
• Intranasal Oxytocin Increases Compassion Toward Women - Medscape, 3/20/15 - "These results may have important clinical implications for treatment of psychopathology, that involve aberrant social behavior including autism spectrum disorders (Hollander et al., 2007), Post traumatic stress disorder - PTSD (Pitman et al., 1993; Olff, 2012), Obsessive-Compulsive disorder OCD (Swedo et al., 1992; Meinlschmidt and Heim, 2007), schizophrenia (Pedersen et al., 2011) or social anxiety disorder (Guastella et al., 2009), and suggest that OT may improve some symptoms, and in particular the social impairments symptoms of these patients (for review, Heinrichs et al., 2009; Matsuzaki et al., 2012). This study suggests that the effect of OT may be not generalized positive effects, but the OT effect depends on the context in which the patient is in. More particularly, OT may affect the social behavior toward women. Future studies on the effect of OT on psychiatric disorders should take in a count these findings" - See Oxy Pro (Oxytocin) Nasal Spray at International Anti-aging Systems.
• Dogs Do Love Their Owners: 'Love Hormone' Makes Dogs Man's Best Friend, Study Says - ABC News, 3/18/15 - "The dogs given oxytocin were better able to complete simple tasks than those given a simple saline spray, the researchers found. The dogs' response to the hormone could offer important clues about how dogs evolved to become "man's best friend," ... We created this almost perfect other social creature. They understand us and will always love us. Dogs are very empathetic and they have greater empathy ... it's likely dogs also had a high number of receptors because they were so empathetic and socialized, similar to humans" - See Oxy Pro (Oxytocin) Nasal Spray at International Anti-aging Systems.
• Oxytocin nasal spray causes men to eat fewer calories - Science Daily, 3/5/15 - "On average, the men ate 122 fewer calories and 9 grams less fat at the meal after they received oxytocin nasal spray compared with placebo ... Oxytocin also reportedly increased the use of body fat as a fuel for energy. There were no serious side effects and no difference in side effects between oxytocin and placebo ... Because oxytocin has sex-specific effects, it needs to be studied in women"
• Oxytocin may enhance social function in psychiatric disorders - Science Daily, 3/4/15 - "a simple injection of the melanocortin drug quickly induced a pair bond in male and female prairie voles without mating, and that bond lasted long after the drug wore away. The researchers also showed the same drug activated oxytocin cells so the cells released oxytocin directly into the brain's reward centers responsible for generating bonds ... Young believes this new found ability to induce an enduring bond in voles means the drug can also enhance attention to and learning from social information in people who have social disorders ... Imagine a drug that could induce the social attention and motivation a mother feels when nursing her infant or the bond between new lovers. This is exactly what we have shown in our latest oxytocin-related research and the chemical's viability to be a therapeutic target for enhancing social function in psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia"
• Treatment restores sociability in autism mouse model - Science Daily, 1/22/15 - "Now researchers at UCLA have treated ASD mice with a neuropeptide--molecules used by neurons to communicate with each other--called oxytocin, and have found that it restores normal social behavior. In addition, the findings suggest that giving oxytocin as early as possible in the animal's life leads to more lasting effects in adults and adolescents ... In the ASD mice, the researchers found a decrease in the number of oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and, overall, a decrease in oxytocin levels throughout the brain. But when they administered oxytocin to the ASD mice, sociability, defined as time spent interacting normally with other mice, was restored"
• Oxytocin May Help Frontotemporal Dementia - Medscape, 1/20/15 - "frontotemporal dementia is the second most common cause of presenile dementia. "It typically starts in the 50s or 60s and appears to have a different pathology to Alzheimer's, with loss of empathy being the hallmark symptom in the most common subtype — known as behavioral variant." ... The patient usually has a striking lack of insight into their condition. They tend to become very self-centered and unappreciative of other family members ... Oxytocin is believed to be an important mediator of social behavior, potentially enhancing empathy. When given to healthy adults or patients with autism, oxytocin has improved emotional expression, empathy, and cooperative behavior ... oxytocin produced changes in subscales of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration–modified Clinical Dementia Rating (FBI) scale, consistent with improvements in levels of apathy and expressions of empathy ... However, one third of patients receiving oxytocin had reported increases in hypersexual behaviors" - See Oxy Pro (Oxytocin) Nasal Spray at International Anti-aging Systems.
• Oxytocin helps to better overcome fear - Science Daily, 11/13/14 - "In the men under the influence of oxytocin, the amygdala, as the fear center in the brain, was overall far less active than in the control group, whereas fear-inhibiting regions were more stimulated"
• Oxytocin promotes social behavior in infant rhesus monkeys - Science Daily, 4/28/14 - "The infant monkeys inhaled an aerosolized dose of oxytocin in one session, and a dose of saline in the other ... Overall, the monkeys were more communicative after receiving oxytocin, more frequently making facial gestures, than they were after receiving the saline ... After oxytocin exposure, the strong imitators were more likely to look at caregivers and stand close to them than they were after the saline. Looking into a caregiver's face and remaining in close proximity to a caregiver are indicators of social interaction and social interest ... In another test, the researchers found that after exposure to oxytocin, monkeys had lower levels of cortisol in their saliva. Cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress. Lower cortisol levels after oxytocin exposure indicate that oxytocin may also function to diminish anxiety"
• Oxytocin a Promising New Treatment for Anorexia - Medscape, 3/18/14 - "oxytocin reduces patients' unconscious tendencies to focus on food, body shape, and negative emotions, such as disgust ... We know that people with anorexia nervosa have abnormal levels and function of oxytocin; we know that people with AN have abnormal social function, and this is related to oxytocin function; we know that people with AN treated with oxytocin for 4 weeks, from work done in Sydney, Australia, have a reduction in weight and shape concern; and finally, we know that oxytocin helps brain plasticity and stress, and that people with AN have shrunken, starved, stressed brains ... the AN group showed significant reductions in the attention given toward eating-related stimuli (P = .030) and toward negative body shape stimuli (P = .015) when administered oxytocin ... oxytocin appears to be quite safe"
• Oxytocin Found to Stimulate Social Brain Regions in Children With Autism - NYTimes.com, 12/2/13 - "the first study of how oxytocin affects the brains of children with autism finds hints of promise — and also suggestions of what its limitations might be ... the hormone, given as an inhalant, generated increased activity in parts of the brain involved in social connection. This suggests not only that oxytocin can stimulate social brain areas, but also that in children with autism these brain regions are not irrevocably damaged but are plastic enough to be influenced"
• How the 'Love Hormone' Works Its Magic - WebMD, 11/25/13 - "the hormone appears to boost men's attraction to their mate -- even when presented with pictures of other women ... 20 men who were in committed relationships for 28 months, on average, took whiffs of either oxytocin nasal spray or an inactive placebo spray ... Men consistently rated their partners as being more attractive and arousing than the other women and, in most cases, a whiff of oxytocin boosted that effect compared to the placebo"
• 'Love Hormone' May Help Treat Personality Disorder - Medscape, 10/11/13 - "The neuropeptide oxytocin, which has been shown to reduce anxiety in social situations, enhance the recognition of facial expressions, and shift attention from negative to positive information, may decrease social-threat hypersensitivity in women with borderline personality disorder ... the patients with borderline personality disorder showed more and faster initial fixation changes than healthy women and had more saccades to the eyes of angry faces, combined with greater amygdala activation in response to angry faces, compared with the control group"
• 'Love Hormone' May Play Wider Role in Social Interaction Than Previously Thought - Science Daily, 9/11/13 - "The new study suggests that oxytocin's role in one-on-one bonding probably evolved from an existing, broader affinity for group living ... The new study, published Sept. 12 in Nature, pinpoints a unique way in which oxytocin alters activity in a part of the brain that is crucial to experiencing the pleasant sensation neuroscientists call "reward." The findings not only provide validity for ongoing trials of oxytocin in autistic patients, but also suggest possible new treatments for neuropsychiatric conditions in which social activity is impaired ... The new discovery shows that mice do indeed have oxytocin receptors at a key location in the nucleus accumbens and, importantly, that blocking oxytocin's activity there significantly diminishes these animals' appetite for socializing" - Note:  Way too much detail in that article.  A good read for insomnia.
• A cautionary note on oxytocin as a treatment for psychiatric disorders - Science Daily, 8/12/13 - "Male prairie voles which received a dose similar to that being tested in humans, or even a lower dose, did not form pair-bonds normally with their pair-mate. Instead these males chose to associate with a strange female" - So I guess what they are saying is that it makes male prairie dogs like chauvinist pig human males (an average human male). Jay Leno could have a field day with that study.
• Potential Role of 'Love Hormone' Oxytocin in Brain Function Revealed - Science Daily, 8/4/13 - "Oxytocin has a remarkable effect on the passage of information through the brain ... It not only quiets background activity, but also increases the accuracy of stimulated impulse firing ... Children and adults with autism-spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with recognizing the emotions of others and are easily distracted by extraneous features of their environment ... oxytocin increased the reliability of stimulated impulses -- good for brain function, but quite unexpected ... it is encouraging to find that a naturally occurring neurohormone can enhance brain circuits by dialing up wanted signals while quieting background noise"
• 'Love hormone' oxytocin: Difference in social perception between men and women - Science Daily, 7/31/13 - "oxytocin improved the ability of all the participants to better interpret social interactions in general. When the researchers examined the differences between the sexes they discovered that following treatment with oxytocin, men's ability to correctly interpret competitive relationships improved, whereas in women it was the ability to correctly identify kinship that improved"
• Intranasal Oxytocin Looks Promising for Migraine - Medscape, 7/3/13 - "included 40 patients with chronic migraine who received a dose of the agent and were asked to rate their pain, nausea, photophobia, and phonophobia on a 4-point scale (indicating severe, moderate, mild, or none) prior to and at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 24 hours ... At from 2 to 4 hours, 64% of the patients who received the agent reported a reduction in pain by 2 categories (either from "severe to mild or none," or from "moderate to none") compared with only 27% of patients who received a placebo"
• Feeling Stressed? Oxytocin Could Help You Reach out to Others for Support - Science Daily, 6/25/13 - "The next time someone snubs you at a party and you think hiding is the solution to escape your feelings of rejection, think again. Scientists have shown that reaching out to other people during a stressful event is an effective way to improve your mood ... instead of the traditional 'fight or flight' response to social conflict where people get revved up to respond to a challenge or run away from it, oxytocin may promote the 'tend and befriend' response where people reach out to others for support after a stressful event. That can, in turn, strengthen social bonds and may be a healthier way to cope ... 100 students were administered either oxytocin or a placebo via a nasal spray, then subjected to social rejection ... In a conversation that was staged to simulate real life, researchers posing as students disagreed with, interrupted and ignored the unsuspecting participants. Using mood and personality questionnaires, the data showed that participants who were particularly distressed after being snubbed by the researchers reported greater trust in other people if they sniffed oxytocin prior to the event"
• Intranasal Oxytocin Normalizes Core ASD Deficit - Medscape, 5/10/13 - "In autism, there are 3 basic deficits — social communication, repetitive behavior, and fixated or restricted interest, where children get fixated on a particular pattern or sensory stimulation and have difficulty paying attention to other, more socially relevant cues ... oxytocin has some effect on all 3 aspects of autism behavior, including now fixated interest ... ASD children process facial emotions differently from typically developing children, and if they are missing out on information about facial emotion, "that is a lot of information they're not able to take in, so this may have a cascading effect on developing appropriate emotional responses,""
• Oxytocin Makes Schizophrenia Patients More Socially Savvy - Medscape, 4/29/13 - "oxytocin, delivered as an intranasal spray, significantly improved the ability of patients with schizophrenia to tell when people were being sarcastic or lying ... oxytocin significantly improved the ability of the schizophrenia patients to interpret paralinguistic cues and to understand the different mental states"
• Oxytocin, Social Sharing and Recovery from Trauma - Science Daily, 12/18/12 - "'social sharing of emotions' (SSE) ... SSE, like the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) -- known variously as 'the hug hormone', 'the moral molecule' and 'the natural love drug' -- has a calming and bonding function in humans. So a team of researchers decided to examine whether it followed that administering oxytocin might ease this therapeutic and powerful 'social sharing of emotions' ... What they found was that OT did not make people more talkative -- the word counts in the letters were the same -- but it did increase the participants' willingness to share the specific component that is responsible for the therapeutic effects of social sharing: emotions. As the researchers note, "the findings are the more remarkable because they were obtained among men, who may be less inclined than women to express their emotions." ... there may be further implications for human health, related to OT's antagonistic effect on the stress hormone cortisol"
• Oxytocin produces more engaged fathers and more responsive infants - Science Daily, 12/10/12 - "oxytocin administration to fathers increases their parental engagement, with parallel effects observed in their infants ... The fathers received the nasal sprays in a solitary room while their infant was cared for in another room. After 40 minutes, fathers and infants were reunited and engaged in face-to-face play that was micro-coded for parent and child's social behavior ... after oxytocin administration, fathers' salivary oxytocin rose dramatically, more than 10 fold, but moreover, similar increases were found in the infants' oxytocin. In the oxytocin conditions, key parenting behavior, including father touch and social reciprocity, increased but infant social behavior, including social gaze and exploratory behavior, increased as well"
• The 'Love Hormone' as Sports Enhancer - NYTimes.com, 11/21/12 - "Until recently, though, scientists had not considered whether a substance that promotes cuddliness and warm, intimate bonding might also play a role in competitive sports ... Being part of a team involves emotions, as for instance when a team scores, and these emotions are associated with brain chemicals ... when one of the first shooters threw his arms in the air to celebrate a goal, his teammates were far more likely to subsequently shoot successfully than when no exuberant gestures followed a goal ... Oxytocin facilitates the ability to read other people’s emotions, and it deepens bonds between group members and heightens suspicion of and antagonism toward those outside the group"
• Hormone affects distance men keep from unknown women they find attractive: Oxytocin may promote fidelity - Science Daily, 11/13/12 - "Men in committed relationships choose to keep a greater distance between themselves and an unknown woman they find attractive when given the hormone oxytocin ... The findings suggest oxytocin may help promote fidelity within monogamous relationships ... men in committed relationships who were given oxytocin kept a greater distance when approaching or being approached by an unknown woman they found attractive compared with those given a placebo. In contrast, oxytocin had no effect on single men"
• Hormone, oxytocin, shows potential as weight-loss treatment - Science Daily, 6/25/12 - "In an obese animal model, the investigators found that daily injections of oxytocin reduced the amount of food the animals consumed, as well as decreased their body weight during, and for nine days after, treatment ... Similar results were observed with oxytocin administered by implanted mini pumps. This drug-delivery method also reduced fat in the liver, improved glucose tolerance, and decreased abdominal fat, which is a major risk factor for heart and blood-vessel, or cardiovascular disease. Additionally, the mini pumps decreased the size of fat-storage cells, or adipocytes, but did not adversely affect blood pressure or activity levels"
• 'Trust' hormone oxytocin found at heart of rare genetic disorder - Science Daily, 6/23/12 - "those with WS had three times as much of the hormone as those without the syndrome ... Those test results suggest that increased levels of oxytocin are linked to both increased desire to seek social interaction and decreased ability to process social cues, a double-edged message that may be very useful at times, for example, during courtship, but damaging at others, as in WS"
• Oxytocin improves brain function in children with autism - Science Daily, 5/19/12 - "oxytocin -- a naturally occurring substance produced in the brain and throughout the body -- increased brain function in regions that are known to process social information in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) ... Oxytocin has recently received attention for its involvement in regulating social abilities because of its role in many aspects of social behavior and social cognition in humans and other species ... The team found that oxytocin increased activations in brain regions known to process social information. Gordon said these brain activations were linked to tasks involving multiple social information processing routes, such as seeing, hearing, and processing information relevant to understanding other people"
• How long will your love last? Check your oxytocin - Fox News, 2/24/12 - "Researchers measured levels of oxytocin in people who had recently begun relationships. Six months later, the couples with the higher levels of oxytocin tended to still be together, while the others had split ... In both singles and couples, levels of oxytocin did not depend on an individual's gender, body weight, height, smoking status, use of contraceptive pills or sexual activity ... Couples with higher levels of oxytocin exhibited more affection during interviews, such as touching and eye-gazing" - See Oxytocin Factor or oxytocin 6x5iu tablets at International Anti-aging Systems.
• The Body Odd - Frozen with fear? How the love hormone gets you moving - MSNBC, 2/13/12 - "a new study shows how the brain speedily delivers the hormone oxytocin — which new mothers have in elevated levels, starting with childbirth — to where it's needed, freeing them to protect their young. ... The study, done in rats, revealed that oxytocin rushes to the brain region governing fear ... The findings "could have implications for autism, anxiety and fear disorders," ... Oxytocin's dampening effect on fear is especially relevant for lactating mothers, who have high oxytocin levels, and can best defend their offspring from a threat when not frozen in terror. Similarly, during childbirth, elevated oxytocin delivery to the amygdala "may be important in reducing anxiety and fear levels,"
• Testosterone makes us less cooperative and more egocentric - Science Daily, 1/31/12 - "people given a boost of the hormone oxytocin tend to be cooperative ... the hormone testosterone has the opposite effect -- it makes people act less cooperatively and more egocentrically"
• A Love Drug? Oxytocin, the 'Cuddle Chemical' to Scientists, Makes Mothers More Kind, Say Researchers - ABC News, 1/11/12 - "There is hope that the hormone could be used to help patients suffering from a range of psychiatric disorders that affect social interactions, including autism and schizophrenia ... They found a clear correlation between the levels of oxytocin and the amount of attention each new mother paid to her baby. The first trimester of the pregnancy turned out to be the most important because higher levels of the hormone during that period coincided with much more bonding and affection after the birth ... At about the same time as the Israel study, Paul Zak of Claremont University in California was giving doses of oxytocin, and a placebo, to participants who were instructed to split a sum of money with a stranger. The results were "overwhelming," according to that study. Those given oxytocin offered 80 percent more money than those given a placebo ... in the first hour or two after getting the hormone, the monkeys actually became more selfish. It took a couple of hours for them to become more social and compassionate" - Click here to purchase Oxytocin Factor or see oxytocin 6x5iu tablets at International Antiaging Systems.
• Oxytocin helps people feel more extroverted: Study finds people more sociable, open, trusting after taking oxytocin - Science Daily, 12/9/11 - "an intranasal form of oxytocin can improve self-perception in social situations ... oxytocin can change how people see themselves, which could in turn make people more sociable ... Under the effects of oxytocin, a person can perceive themselves as more extraverted, more open to new ideas and more trusting ... Specifically, oxytocin administration amplified personality traits such as warmth, trust, altruism and openness"
• New role for hormone oxytocin in brain - Science Daily, 11/2/11 - "Much of the body's chemistry is controlled by the brain -- from blood pressure to appetite to food metabolism ... a team of scientists led by Dr. Gil Levkowitz of the Weizmann Institute has revealed the exact structure of one crucial brain area in which biochemical commands are passed from the brain cells to the bloodstream and from there to the body. In the process, they discovered a surprising new role for the "hormone of love," showing that it helps to direct the development of this brain structure ... The scientists showed that oxytocin, one of the two major hormones secreted in the adult neurohypophysis, is involved in the development of this brain area already in the embryo. At this stage, the oxytocin governs the formation of new blood vessels" - Note:  I'm still trying to figure out what they're trying to say.
• Hormone oxytocin flies off shelves as a his-and-hers sex drug - The Daily, 10/10/11 - "“Absolutely, it’s worth a try,” Eric Braverman, a New York physician who recommends an oxytocin supplement to patients struggling in relationships, told The Daily. “And we know that people produce less oxytocin as they get older, so for them to stay intimate, a supplement can be a godsend.” ... But while some couples swear by the supplement, experts caution that there’s not enough evidence to show that synthetic oxytocin — the kind sold over-the-counter, as opposed to that produced by the human body or used by hospitals to induce labor — can actually impact the brain" - Related article:
  • The Oxytocin Diaries, Our reporter spends a week on the friskiness hormone to see how it affects her - The Daily, 10/10/11
• Psychologists discover oxytocin receptor gene's link to optimism, self-esteem - Science Daily, 9/14/11 - "UCLA life scientists have identified for the first time a particular gene's link to optimism, self-esteem and "mastery," the belief that one has control over one's own life -- three critical psychological resources for coping well with stress and depression ... The gene Taylor and her colleagues identified is the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). Oxytocin is a hormone that increases in response to stress and is associated with good social skills such as empathy and enjoying the company of others ... An increase in oxytocin tends to lead to more social behavior, especially under stress and especially in females, earlier research has indicated ... OXTR likely interacts with other genes"
• The dark side of oxytocin - Science Daily, 8/1/11
• Low Oxytocin Linked to Postpartum Depression - WebMD, 5/11/11 - "Sometimes called the “cuddle hormone” or the “hormone of love,” oxytocin has been the subject of much research interest for its ability to foster feelings of bonding and attachment ... New fathers who are given a whiff of oxytocin nasal spray, for example, are more likely to encourage their children to explore during playtime and are less likely to be hostile, compared to fathers given a placebo ... Lower oxytocin levels before birth were associated with a greater risk of postpartum depression"
• 'Love hormone' may treat daily headaches - MSNBC, 12/20/10 - "Of patients given a dose of oxytocin as a nasal spray, 50 percent reported their headache pain was reduced by half, and an additional 27 percent of these patients reported no pain after four hours. By comparison, 11 percent of patients who were given a placebo spray said their headache pain was cut by half after four hours, and none reported complete pain relief"
• 'Love Hormone' could help treat severe mental illness - MSNBC, 12.3.10 - "A small study published Oct. 1 in the journal Biological Psychiatry found that patients with schizophreniawho took oxytocin for three weeks along with their regular antipsychotic medication improved in their symptoms and hallucinated less than those who took a placebo with their antipsychotic ... Oxytocin is also being tested in clinical trials as a treatment for depression, borderline personality disorder and alcohol withdrawal ... One hypothesis is that oxytocin dampens the activity of the brain's fear center, the amygdala, thereby easing stress and anxiety ... Because of oxytocin's proposed blunting effects on the amygdala's activity, scientists have also hypothesized it would help those with PTSD ... oxytocin's trust effect could help those with schizophrenia, making them less paranoid ... researchers are investigating oxytocin's potential benefit for a number of other ailments, including headaches, constipation and skin damage"
• Hormone oxytocin bolsters childhood memories of mom's affections - Science Daily, 11/29/10
• Trust hormone associated with happiness: Human study suggests new role for oxytocin - Science Daily, 11/15/10 - "women who show large increases in oxytocin when they are trusted also report being more satisfied with life and less depressed"
• Oxytocin increases advertising’s influence: Hormone heightened sensitivity to public service announcements - Science Daily, 11/15/10
• Oxytocin and social contact reduce anxiety: Hormone may be less effective at relieving stress for isolated animals - Science Daily, 11/15/10
• Hormone oxytocin improves social cognition but only in less socially proficient individuals - Science Daily, 9/21/10
• Oxytocin makes people trusting, but not gullible, study suggests - Science Daily, 8/24/10 - "Oxytocin (OT) is a hormone that plays an important role in social behavior—it has even been nicknamed “the love hormone” and “liquid trust.” Increased levels of OT have been associated with greater caring, generosity, and trust ... volunteers who received the OT nasal spray were more trusting of the computer and the reliable partners—that is, they offered more money to the computer and the reliable partner than did volunteers who received the placebo nasal spray. However, OT did not have an effect when it came to sharing with a seemingly unreliable partner—the volunteers were not generous towards a potentially unreliable partner, regardless of which nasal spray they received. ... These findings suggest that OT fosters trust, but not gullibility: OT may make individuals more trusting, but only in certain situations"
• Study: A Dose of Oxytocin Increases the Cuddles - Time Magazine, 5/2/10
• 'Cuddle hormone' makes men more empathetic - BBC News, 4/30/10 - "Professor Kendrick said the oxytocin spray may prove to be useful in people with conditions associated with reduced social approachability and social withdrawal, such as schizophrenia ... The bottom line is it improved the ability of people to learn when they had positive feedback and that is pretty important because this might help improve the effectiveness of behavioural therapy or even be useful in people with learning difficulties"
• Hormone spray improves male sensitivity, German research finds - Science Daily, 4/29/10
• Love And Envy Linked By Same Hormone, Oxytocin - Science Daily, 11/12/09
• Protein That Regulates Hormones Critical To Women's Health Found In Pituitary - Science Daily, 1/12/09 - "Jackson's interest in the effects of oxytocin, also known as the "love hormone," ... Viagra acts in the posterior pituitary by enabling electrical impulses to release more oxytocin"
• 'Love Hormone' Promotes Bonding: Could It Treat Anxiety? - Science Daily, 2/8/08
• Study unwraps hormone, generosity connection - USATODAY.com, 12/17/07
• Hormone May Help Mom and Baby Bond - WebMD, 10/16/07
• ED Drugs May Boost Orgasm Hormone - WebMD, 8/27/07
• Viagra Increases Release Of Key Reproductive Hormone, Study Finds - Science Daily, 8/23/07
• Trust-building Hormone Short-circuits Fear In Humans - Science Daily, 12/8/05
• Hormone May Help Build Trust - WebMD, 10/17/05
• Trust Potion Not Just Fiction Anymore - WebMD, 6/1/05
• Scientists study ‘trust in a bottle’ - MSNBC, 6/1/05
• Hugs Can Do A Heart Good, Especially For Women, Who Get More Of A Protective Hormone, Study Finds - Intelihealth, 3/8/04
• Oxytocin May Curb Repetitive Behaviours In Autism Disorders - Doctor's Guide, 1/7/03
• Happily ever after? It's all in your head - CNN, 2/14/02 - See the video.  Claims that love is dependent on a cocktail of chemicals (dopamine, norepinephrine and PEA) and that oxytocin is responsible for bonding and that vasopressin is responsible for monogamy.
• When It Comes to Love, the Nose Knows - WebMD, 2/14/01 - "Oxytocin is the hormone thought to be responsible for this phase of love, as well as for mother-child bonding. Fallon calls it the "cuddling hormone," as it is released by touch "done with the right rhythm and pressure.""

Abstracts:

• OXYTOCIN IN THE ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX IS INVOLVED IN HELPING BEHAVIOUR - Behav Brain Res 2020 Jun 27 - "Empathy toward the distress of others is thought to motivate helping behaviour, in the form of voluntary action to eliminate that distress. Neuropeptide oxytocin is associated with various social cognitive abilities, including empathy and prosocial behaviour. The anterior cingulate cortex is known to be one of the brain regions underlying empathy, and one in which oxytocin receptors are expressed. However, the relationship between helping behaviour and oxytocin in the anterior cingulate cortex is still unclear. The present study investigated whether oxytocin in the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in rats' helping behaviour. In Experiment 1, we examined the influence of blockading the oxytocin receptors in the anterior cingulate cortex on helping behaviour. Impeding oxytocin in the anterior cingulate cortex delayed learning of the helping behaviour. In Experiment 2, we examined immunofluorescent colocalization of oxytocin receptors and c-fos proteins in the anterior cingulate cortex, the anterior insular cortex, and the amygdala in rats that acquired helping behaviour. We found increased c-fos expression in oxytocin receptor-containing neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala when the rats acquired helping behaviour. In addition, the change in neural activation was found in the late phase of the learning. These results suggest that the oxytocin in the cingulate-amygdala pathways may play an important role in helping behaviour" - See oxytocin at Amazon.com.
• The effects of oxytocin on cognitive defect caused by chronic restraint stress applied to adolescent rats and on hippocampal VEGF and BDNF levels - Med Sci Monit. 2015 Jan 6 - "The results indicate that impaired hippocampal learning and memory loss due to chronic restraint stress can be positively affected by intranasal oxytocin"
• Oxytocin improves emotion recognition for older males - Neurobiol Aging. 2014 Apr 26 - "Older adults (≥60 years) perform worse than young adults (18-30 years) when recognizing facial expressions of emotion. The hypothesized cause of these changes might be declines in neurotransmitters that could affect information processing within the brain. In the present study, we examined the neuropeptide oxytocin that functions to increase neurotransmission. Research suggests that oxytocin benefits the emotion recognition of less socially able individuals. Men tend to have lower levels of oxytocin and older men tend to have worse emotion recognition than older women; therefore, there is reason to think that older men will be particularly likely to benefit from oxytocin. We examined this idea using a double-blind design, testing 68 older and 68 young adults randomly allocated to receive oxytocin nasal spray (20 international units) or placebo ... Older males receiving oxytocin showed improved emotion recognition relative to those taking placebo"
• Oxytocin secretion is related to measures of energy homeostasis in young amenorrheic athletes - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Feb 28 - "Oxytocin has been implicated in the modulation of energy metabolism in animals. Oxytocin knockout mice develop obesity without a change in food intake, suggesting that a lack of oxytocin may reduce metabolic rate. Furthermore, administration of oxytocin centrally reduces food intake in rats, an effect reversed by an oxytocin antagonist, implying that oxytocin may regulate appetite and energy intake ... 15 amenorrheic athletes (AA), 15 eumenorrheic athletes (EA), and 15 non-athletes (NA) ... In AA, oxytocin secretion is associated with measures of energy availability and expenditure, suggesting that oxytocin may be involved in regulation of energy balance in energy deficient states"
• Oxytocin, a new determinant of bone mineral density in post-menopausal women: analysis of the OPUS cohort - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Jan 21 - "Subjects were included in the Osteoporosis and Ultrasound study (OPUS), a 6-yr prospective study in a population-based cohort ... Median age was 70.8 years ... After adjustment for confounding factors, the correlation between OT serum level and BMD remains significant at the hip in women with unmeasureable oestradiol or leptin above the median value. There was no significant relationship between OT serum levels and fractures"
• Oxytocin enhances brain reward system responses in men viewing the face of their female partner - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Nov 25 - "The evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) is associated with the formation of partner bonds in some species via interactions with brain dopamine reward systems ... Here, we report the results of a discovery and a replication study, each involving a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject, pharmaco-functional MRI experiment with 20 heterosexual pair-bonded male volunteers. In both experiments, intranasal OXT treatment (24 IU) made subjects perceive their female partner's face as more attractive compared with unfamiliar women but had no effect on the attractiveness of other familiar women ... our results suggest that OXT could contribute to romantic bonds in men by enhancing their partner's attractiveness and reward value compared with other women"
• Oxytocin and Reduction of Social Threat Hypersensitivity in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder - Am J Psychiatry. 2013 Aug 28 - "Borderline patients exhibited more and faster initial fixation changes to the eyes of angry faces combined with increased amygdala activation in response to angry faces compared with the control group. These abnormal behavioral and neural patterns were normalized after oxytocin administration"
• Sexual behavior and dendritic spine density of posterodorsal medial amygdala neurons in oxytocin knockout female mice - Behav Brain Res. 2013 Jul 29 - "Central oxytocin (OT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) have been shown to play an important role in sexual behavior and neuroendocrine secretion in rodents ... This study aimed to analyze the role of OT in sexual behavior, the number of oocytes and the density of dendritic spines in the posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD) of female mice with selective deletion of the OT gene (OTKO). Female C57BL/6 mice were genotyped and divided into control (WT) and OTKO groups (n= 11 each) ... Our data suggest that OT plays a crucial role in the sexual behavior display, number of released oocytes and density of dendritic spines in the MePD of female mice" - See Oxy Pro (Oxytocin) Nasal Spray at International Anti-aging Systems.
  • Oocytes - thefreedictionary.com - "A cell from which an egg or ovum develops by meiosis; a female gametocyte ... an immature female germ cell that gives rise to an ovum after two meiotic divisions ... an immature egg cell of the animal ovary: in humans, one oocyte matures during the menstrual cycle while several others partially mature and disintegrate ... A diploid cell that undergoes meiosis to form eggs"
  • Dendritic spine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "A dendritic spine (or spine) is a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite that typically receives input from a single synapse of an axon. Dendritic spines serve as a storage site for synaptic strength and help transmit electrical signals to the neuron's cell body"
  • Amygdala - Science Daily - "The amygdala (Latin, corpus amygdaloideum) is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain's medial temporal lobe ...  Shown to play a key role in the processsing of emotions, the amygdala forms part of the limbic system ... In humans, it is the most sexually-dimorphic brain structure, and shrinks by more than 30% in males upon castration"
• Oxytocin administration alters HPA reactivity in the context of parent-infant interaction - Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2013 Jul 29 - "The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) and the steroid cortisol (CT) have each been implicated in complex social behavior, including parenting, and one mechanism by which OT is thought to exert its pro-social effects is by attenuating hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to stress ... we examined the effects of intranasal OT administered to the parent on parent's and infant's CT levels following parent-child interaction that included a social stressor ... 35 fathers and their 5-month-old infants were observed in a face-to-face-still-face paradigm twice, one week apart ... OT increased fathers' overall CT response to the stress paradigm. Furthermore, OT altered infants' physiological and behavioral response as a function of parent-infant synchrony. Among infants experiencing high parent-infant synchrony, OT elevated infant HPA reactivity and increased infant social gaze to the father while father maintained a still-face. On the other hand, among infants experiencing low social synchrony, parental OT reduced the infant's stress response and diminished social gaze toward the unavailable father. Results are consistent with the "social salience" hypothesis and highlight that OT effects on human social functioning are not uniform and depend on the individual's attachment history and social skills"
• Impact of Maternal Depression Across the First 6 Years of Life on the Child's Mental Health, Social Engagement, and Empathy: The Moderating Role of Oxytocin - Am J Psychiatry. 2013 Jul 12 - "Maternal depression across the postbirth period has long-term negative consequences for infant development ... The authors recruited a community cohort of women with high or low depression scores 2 days after childbirth and measured depression again at 6 and 9 months. When the child was 6, the authors evaluated the families of 46 chronically depressed mothers and 103 mothers reporting no depression since childbirth. The child was assessed for psychiatric diagnoses, social engagement, and empathy. Mother, father, and child were tested for salivary oxytocin level and variation in the rs2254298 single nucleotide polymorphism on the OXTR gene ... Of the children of the chronically depressed mothers, 61% displayed axis I disorders, mainly anxiety and oppositional defiant disorder, compared with 15% of the children of nondepressed mothers. In the depressed mothers' families, salivary oxytocin was lower in mothers, fathers, and children, and the children had lower empathy and social engagement levels. The rs2254298 GG homozygous genotype was overrepresented in depressed mothers and their families, and it correlated with lower salivary oxytocin. Presence of a single rs2254298 A allele (GA or AA genotype) in depressed mothers markedly decreased risk of child psychopathology ... This suggests a potential for oxytocin-based interventions"
• Oxytocin blunts social vigilance in the rhesus macaque - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jun 24 - "Exogenous application of the neuromodulatory hormone oxytocin (OT) promotes prosocial behavior and can improve social function ... in the absence of competing task demands or goals, OT increased attention to faces and eyes, as in humans. By contrast, OT reduced species typical social vigilance for unfamiliar, dominant, and emotional faces in two additional tasks. OT eliminated the emergence of a typical state of vigilance when dominant face images were available during a social image choice task. Moreover, OT improved performance on a reward-guided saccade task, despite salient social distractors: OT reduced the interference of unfamiliar faces, particularly emotional ones, when these faces were task irrelevant. Together, these results demonstrate that OT suppresses vigilance toward potential social threats in the rhesus macaque" - See Oxy Pro (Oxytocin) Nasal Spray at International Anti-aging Systems and Oxytocin Factor.
• Oxytocin facilitates protective responses to aversive social stimuli in males - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 16 - "Our results therefore show that OXT can potentiate the protective and mnemonic impact of aversive social information despite reducing amygdala activity, and suggest that the insula may play a role in emotional modulation of memory"
• A link between oxytocin and serotonin in humans: Supporting evidence from peripheral markers - Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2012 Jan 30 - "Pharmacological studies indicate a functional interaction between the serotonergic and oxytocinergic systems. In particular, some selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors, such as citalopram and fluvoxamine, seem to exert part of their antidepressant effects through oxytocin (OT) release. Further, the administration of fenfluramine, a serotonergic agonist, to healthy subjects increases plasma OT levels. Interestingly, immunocytochemical and double-immunofluorescent techniques revealed a high degree of overlap between 5-HT transporter (SERT)-labeled fibers and OT-containing cells ... This result represents the first evidence of an interaction between OT and SERT, as measured by [(3)H]-Par binding, at peripheral levels in humans. Given the several activities mediated by both OT and 5-HT, such a relationship might provide new perspectives and insights into psychiatric disorders and/or social relationship disturbances, as well as novel treatment strategies overcoming and/or integrating the serotonergic paradigm"
• Oxytocin Mediates Social Neuroprotection After Cerebral Ischemia - Stroke. 2011 Sep 29 - "In the present study, adult male mice were socially isolated (housed individually) or socially paired (housed with an ovariectomized female); social pairing increased hypothalamic OT gene expression. To determine whether a causal relationship exists between increased OT and improved stroke outcome, mice were treated with exogenous OT or OT receptor antagonist beginning 1 week before induction of experimental stroke via middle cerebral artery occlusion ... Relative to social isolation, social housing attenuated infarct size, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress following experimental stroke; the neuroprotective effect of social housing was eliminated by receptor antagonist treatment. In contrast, administration of OT to socially isolated mice reproduced the neuroprotection conferred by social housing. We further report evidence for a direct suppressive action of OT on cultured microglia, which is a key instigator in the development of neuroinflammation after cerebral ischemia"