| Message: | Oxytocin may play a role in autism and may be an effective treatment for autism's repetitive and affiliative behaviors. Oxytocin treatments also resulted in an increased retention of affective speech in adults with autism. Two related studies in adults, in 2003 and 2007, found oxytocin decreased repetitive behaviors and improved interpretation of emotions. More recently, intranasal administration of oxytocin was found to increase emotion recognition in children as young as 12 who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.
Oxytocin is destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract, so must be administered by injection or as nasal spray. It has a half-life of typically about three minutes in the blood, and given intravenously does not enter the brain in significant quantities - it is excluded from the brain by the blood-brain barrier. Evidence in rhesus macaques indicates oxytocin by nasal spray does enter the brain. Oxytocin nasal sprays have been used to stimulate breastfeeding, but the efficacy of this approach is doubtful. |
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