Autism is characterized by difficulties in social functioning<\/strong>. Individuals with autism are generally less sensitive to social information, which can influence their interactions with others as they may overlook social cues. Research has shown that the neuropeptide oxytocin<\/strong>, known to be involved in childbirth and mother-child bonding, also has the potential to improve social information processing in youth with autism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In a recent study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry<\/em>, 17 adult men with autism were given a low dose of intranasal oxytocin, a higher dose of intranasal oxytocin, or a placebo over three separate visits. A novel nasal spray device developed by OptiNose AS, which is designed to improve nose-to-brain molecule delivery, was used to deliver the treatment. After each spray administration, the participants were asked about the emotional intensity of a series of facial images.<\/p>\n Consistent with past research in healthy adults, the researchers found evidence for social effects after the lower dose<\/strong>, and not the higher dose that is often used in treatment trials. Specifically, compared to placebo spray, study participants rated faces as happier after the low dose oxytocin spray.<\/p>\n “These results suggest that intranasal oxytocin can influence how individuals with autism perceive emotion in others<\/strong>,” says professor Ole A. Andreassen, senior author of the study and a professor at the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT) at the University of Oslo.<\/p>\n “Current behavioral treatment options addressing social dysfunction in autism are extremely resource intensive, so this research is an important first step for a potential pharmacological treatment.”<\/p>\n First author Daniel S. Quintana explains: “Here we used a novel nasal spray device, and tested two doses of oxytocin. These results provide a better understanding of how to administer oxytocin efficiently, and which dose may be more effective. This will aid future clinical studies of this promising treatment for social dysfunction.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the\u00a0University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine press release: A recent study has demonstrated that intranasal oxytocin can influence how individuals with autism perceive emotion in others. This is an… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[331,5,60],"tags":[71,72,122,100,173,98],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21440"}],"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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21440"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21495,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21440\/revisions\/21495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nose.jpg\")
A recent study has demonstrated that intranasal oxytocin can influence how individuals with autism perceive emotion in others<\/strong>. This is an important first step for a potential pharmacological treatment of autism.<\/p>\n