A study of hospitalized patients with severe mental illness in Israel found that the effects of the oxytocin hormone on psychotic symptoms depended on personality traits. Oxytocin administration improved symptoms in participants with low openness and extraversion, but worsened cooperation with the therapist in participants with low agreeableness and neuroticism. This research psychoneuroendocrinegy.
Oxytocin is a hormone produced in the hypothalamus and released by the pituitary gland. It plays an important role in social bonding, trust and intimacy. It is released in large amounts when cuddled, cuddled, or having sex. For this reason, it is sometimes called the “love hormone”.
It has also been suggested that oxytocin can facilitate psychotherapeutic interventions by modulating trust and security. However, studies conducted to investigate this were inconclusive. Some studies have reported no promoting effects, some studies have reported some positive effects, and some studies have even reported detrimental effects. proposed that the effects of oxytocin are context-dependent and may vary between individuals.
Study author Dana Tzur Bitan and her colleagues wanted to further explore the factors on which oxytocin’s effects depend. They hypothesized that there is. They conducted a study on a group of patients suffering from severe mental illness.
Participants were 87 patients from the Sharvata Mental Health Center in Israel. His 55% of patients suffered from affective disorders, 17% from anxiety disorders, and the rest of the participants had various other psychiatric disorders. Twenty-three participants dropped out before the study ended. Participants were randomly divided into two groups.
One group of participants received oxytocin twice daily, at 8:00 and 17:00 daily, for four weeks. Participants in the other group received the same-appearing placebo (a substance with no physiological effect) at the same time for the same duration. This was administered by nursing staff blinded to which participants belonged to which group. Both oxytocin and placebo were nasally administered using a spray. During this period, the study participant attended psychodynamic psychotherapy sessions two to three times a week.
Participants rated emotional attachment (Intimate Experience Scale), personality (Big Five Inventory), depression (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression), and anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory) at the beginning of the study. Completed and 4 weeks after the study was completed.
Cooperation between psychotherapist and patient was assessed after each psychotherapy session. Distress levels were also assessed after each psychotherapy session. Long-term distress was assessed once weekly. In addition, participants completed a suicidal ideation assessment (Suicidal Ideation Scale).
Results showed that the effects of oxytocin depended on personality rather than attachment patterns. Avoidant or anxious attachment patterns did not mitigate the effects of oxytocin on working with the psychotherapist. But the character was another story.
These researchers found that giving introverts oxytocin slightly reduced suicidal ideation (the frequency and intensity of suicidal thoughts). However, among extroverts, or marked extroverts, oxytocin administration slightly increased suicidal ideation. In participants with low openness to experience, oxytocin led to a reduction in symptoms of depression, but this did not occur in participants with very high openness to experience.
In extroverts, but not introverts, oxytocin reduced working alliances with the psychotherapist.In participants with low levels of neuroticism, oxytocin reduced working alliances.This effect was not seen in the more neurotic participants. Similar effects were seen in low-agree participants.
“The results showed that personality traits modulated the effects of oxytocin administration. Low extroversion was also associated with greater symptom improvement on several anxiety and depression scales after oxytocin administration compared with high extroversion.
This study sheds light on the effects of oxytocin on important psychological processes. However, there are also limitations that need to be taken into account. Notably, the sample consisted of participants with various diagnoses. People with certain mental states may be affected differently. Participants in this study also took relatively large doses of psychiatric medications, and interactions between these and oxytocin cannot be ruled out.
the study, “A Double-edged Hormone: The Regulatory Role of Personality and Attachment for the Pro-Treatment Effects of Oxytocin‘ was written by Dana Tzur Bitan, Ariella Grossman-Giron, Omer Sedoff, Sigal Zilcha-Mano, Uri Nitzan, and Hagai Maoz.
