What Is Oxytocin?
The so-called ‘love hormone,’ oxytocin plays an important role in pregnancy, birth, and emotional bonding.
Oxytocin is a hormone best known for its roles in childbirth and lactation.
Oxytocin is sometimes referred to as the “love hormone” or “love drug” for its roles in sexual bonding, parenting, and other social behaviors.
Oxytocin is produced in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, and is stored in the pituitary gland, notes Harvard Health Publishing.
The production of naturally occurring oxytocin in the body helps to stimulate the uterus to contract at the end of pregnancy, signaling the start of childbirth.
Laboratory-made oxytocin, called Pitocin, has been used for many years to help start or strengthen uterine contractions during labor or to reduce bleeding after delivery, according to MedlinePlus.
Alternately, drugs that act against oxytocin are often given to help stop premature labor.
Oxytocin also helps to stimulate milk production after birth.
In recent years, scientific studies of the effects of oxytocin on the brain suggest its role goes well beyond childbirth and lactation.
Studies in laboratory animals and humans suggest that the “love hormone” plays an important role in the establishment of social relationships and behaviors, such as caregiving. Oxytocin also may have anxiolytic properties, meaning it may help reduce anxiety, as one paper noted.
Oxytocin has been promoted as a “wonder drug” that can help enhance positive feelings and social skills while also purportedly alleviating serious cognitive and psychiatric and behavioral conditions, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and autism.
However, there’s little clinical conclusive evidence to suggest that oxytocin is an effective treatment for psychiatric conditions, and the results from studies that have been done are mixed.
One study that involved a randomized trial found some evidence that oxytocin might help improve communication skills in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). But another study, a larger clinical trial from 2021 conducted over a longer period, found no significant connection.
There is some evidence that baseline levels of oxytocin may be a useful indicator of who may benefit most from oxytocin treatment. For example, a study by Stanford researchers found that children with ASD who had relatively low oxytocin levels as a baseline improved social function the most after treatment with an oxytocin nasal spray.
Oxytocin may be administered either as an injection or a nasal spray. It’s available by prescription under the brand names Pitocin and Syntocinon.
Nasal sprays are commonly used in medical studies of psychiatric effects, because a nasal spray allows oxytocin to travel more readily from the bloodstream to the brain than an injection, per research.
Men naturally produce lower levels of oxytocin than women.
Research involving men in monogamous relationships has suggested that, for men, the hormone may contribute to fidelity by enhancing their female partner’s attractiveness compared to other women (the oxytocin was given while the man was shown a picture of his partner).
More research is needed to determine oxytocin’s effects on men.
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