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Oxytocin: Love potion #1?
Relationships are difficult and most of us probably think at some
point that communicating positively with our partner when discussing
stressful issues, like home finances, is an impossible task. What if
there was a safe way to take the "edge" off these discussions? |
| The biology of human
social relationships is just beginning to emerge as groundbreaking
research on social cognition conducted in animals is now informing
research in humans.
In its May 1st issue, Biological Psychiatry (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biopsychiat),
published by Elsevier, includes a paper by Swiss researchers that have
investigated the effects of oxytocin, the "love hormone," on human
couple interactions. They recruited adult couples who received oxytocin
or placebo intranasally before engaging in a conflict discussion in the
laboratory. Oxytocin increased positive communication behavior in
relation to negative behavior and reduced salivary cortisol, i.e., their
stress levels, compared to placebo.
"We are just beginning to understand the powerful
effects of hormones and chemicals released by the body in the context of
important social interactions," commented John Krystal, M.D., the editor
of Biological Psychiatry. "As this knowledge grows, the question
of how to best use our developing capacities to pharmacologically alter
social processes will become an important question to explore."
Author Beate Ditzen, Ph.D., noted that this was the
first study of its kind and important because it evaluated real-time
natural couple behavior in the laboratory. "[Oxytocin] might help us to
pronounce the effects of a standard treatment, such as cognitive
behavioral therapy, by possibly making the benefits of social
interaction more accessible to the individual. But it probably will not
replace these standard treatments."
They clarify that this study does not show that
oxytocin should currently be used as a treatment itself and the effects
of repeated administration have not been evaluated in humans. In
addition, important ethical concerns will have to be addressed, such as
to what extent it should be used as a "treatment" and whether developed
treatments could become drugs of abuse in the form of "social
enhancers."
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