Oxytocin, also known as the hormone of love or trust, because it is responsible for the formation of a bond between the mother and the newborn, can alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia, according to studies conducted so far in a small group of patients.
Information on this subject is provided by the New Scientist website.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that is associated with the so-called psychotic symptoms such as delusions (e.g. the patient’s belief that others are conspiring against him), auditory and visual hallucinations, disturbed thinking, problems with concentration. It most often appears in young people – between 15 and 35 years of age.
Antipsychotics (neuroleptics) are commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia, but they may have side effects (especially older drugs) such as slowing down, sleepiness, loss of vigor.
Researchers from the University of California in San Diego invited 15 patients with schizophrenia to their latest research. For three weeks, some of them used an oxytocin nasal spray, and the rest a similar formulation with a placebo. The patients then switched sprays for another three weeks.
It turned out that in most of them, oxytocin significantly improved the symptoms of schizophrenia. The improvement in the health of patients was assessed at an average of 8%.
The therapeutic effects of the hormone were revealed only in the third week of use, but – as the authors of the study remind – the increase in the effectiveness of neuroleptics is also observed several weeks after the start of treatment.
Oxytocin may work by suppressing the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that excessively causes psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, explains the lead researcher, David Feifel.
In his earlier studies in mice, the specialist observed that oxytocin could alleviate symptoms in rodents that are equivalent to human psychosis. In turn, the work of other scientists has shown that people become more trusting after inhaling this hormone, which can help suppress delusional disorders in schizophrenics, Feifel emphasizes.
Currently, the researcher is seeking approval from the US National Institutes of Health to test oxytocin in a larger group of patients, at higher doses, and for a longer period of time.
The results of these studies provide significant evidence for the usefulness of oxytocin in the treatment of schizophrenia, comments Heather Caldwell of Kent State University (Ohio), co-author of a 2008 study that showed that mice unable to produce oxytocin due to genetic modification are more prone to developing psychotic symptoms.
The article by Feifel and his colleagues is published in Biological Psychiatry. (PAP)