From the UC San Diego press release:<\/p>\n
Gazing into your lover\u2019s eyes isn\u2019t only romantic; it also releases a brain chemical called oxytocin that strengthens social bonds in a variety of species.\u00a0 For some people who suffer from depression, the so-called \u201chormone of love\u201d might hold out hope. Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine are conducting a clinical trial to study whether oxytocin <\/strong>\u2013 the brain hormone released with touches, hugs, or when a mother and her newborn baby bond \u2013 might help patients with depression.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cIn humans, oxytocin is released when they hug or experience other pleasant physical touch, and it plays a part in the human sexual response cycle,\u201d said Kai MacDonald, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
MacDonald went on to explain that oxytocin appears to change the brain signals related to social recognition via facial expressions, perhaps by changing the firing of the amygdala, the part of the brain that plays a primary role in the processing of important emotional stimuli. \u00a0In this way, oxytocin in the brain may be a potent mediator of human social behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why oxytocin is sometimes called \u2018the love hormone,\u2019\u201d said MacDonald.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s said that the eyes are the window to the soul\u2026they certainly are the window to the emotional brain.\u00a0 We know that the eye-to-eye communication, which is affected by oxytocin, is critical to intimate emotional communication for all kind of emotions \u2013 love, fear, trust, anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
UC San Diego researchers have previously discovered that oxytocin may help patients with schizophrenia, and MacDonald and colleague David Feifel, MD, PhD, UCSD professor of psychiatry, are now enrolling participants to examine its role in clinical depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudies of blood levels and genetic factors in depressed patients point to the possibility that this natural hormone might play a part in helping clinical depression,\u201d said MacDonald. \u00a0\u201cPreviously, studies of healthy individuals have shown that intranasal doses of oxytocin reduce activation of brain circuits involved in fear, increase levels of eye contact, and increase both trust and generosity,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cInterestingly, people given oxytocin don\u2019t report feeling any different, but they act differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early clinical data also indicates oxytocin may help women with anxiety disorders.<\/p>\n
\u201cA hug or a touch that causes a release of this hormone might somehow change brain signals,\u201d MacDonald said.\u00a0 \u201cWe want to see if we can harness this response to help patients who suffer from depression.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the UC San Diego press release: Gazing into your lover\u2019s eyes isn\u2019t only romantic; it also releases a brain chemical called oxytocin that strengthens social bonds in a variety… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[14,31,158],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}