MUSC The Catalyst
MUSC arial view

 

MUSC Medical Links Charleston Links Archives Catalyst Advertisers Seminars and Events Research Studies Public Relations Research Grants Catalyst PDF File MUSC home page Community Happenings Campus News Applause

MUSC Medical Links Charleston Links Archives Catalyst Advertisers Seminars and Events Research Studies Public Relations Research Grants MUSC home page Community Happenings Campus News Applause

 


Researchers link oxytocin to enhanced socialization


A MUSC brain imaging study shows that a single dose of intra-nasal oxytocin, which can relieve anxiety and is important for maternal bonding and attachment, may promote engaged social interactions in depressed individuals. 

The study was lead by Ziad Nahas, M.D., associate professor, MUSC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and medical director of the Brain Stimulation Laboratory and Mood Disorders Clinic, in collaboration with Dr. Jaak Panksepp from Washington State University, and Dr. David Pincus from SUMMA Health in Akron, Ohio.

This is the first study to look at the effects of oxytocin on brain activity in unmedicated depressed individuals and to compare it to healthy controls. It’s also the first to analyze oxytocin’s influence on brain activity while performing a mental task developed specifically to examine the mental attribution of emotions.

Subjects were asked to infer the mental state of a person from the expression in their eyes; a test called “Reading the Mind in the Eyes.” During this task, depressed patients displayed greater activity in the area of the brain associated with instinctive and primary emotions. After inhaling the oxytocin, depressed patients appeared to call on more abstract regions to process this task.

“A hallmark of depression is how disconnected the patients feel from their social milieu,” said Nahas. “The patients in our study seemed much more reactive and instinctive in their assessments of others’ mental states. This changed when we gave them oxytocin as if it helped their brain recruit into wider possibilities. Their brain activities started resembling our healthy subjects.”

Since only a single dose was administered, it is not known what role oxytocin may have in clinically treating depressive symptoms. Findings support the idea that manipulating the brain in processing social tasks allows it to be less self-referential.

The next step is to study oxytocin during several weeks in clinical settings and see if it can help treat depression and anxiety symptoms.

The study appears in Frontiers in Psychiatry and was funded by the Hope for Depression Research Foundation.



Friday, Oct. 29, 2010



The Catalyst Online is published weekly by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. The Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to The Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.