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Autism Symptoms Improved By Oxytocin

Researchers from the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience in Lyon, France, may have demonstrated that a hormone that bonds mothers and their babies may help improve social interaction in adults with autism.

The hormone is Oxytocin which was administered in the study through inhalation. As published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers discovered that those given the hormone showed improved understanding of social cues in game simulations and were more attentive to facial expressions.

Leading the study was Angela Sirigu, who noted the potential therapeutic benefits of Oxytocin for adults as well as children with autism. These benefits include both eye contact improvement as well as an increased understanding of how others respond to them, fostering an overall improved ability to learn appropriate social responses.

“If Oxytocin is administered early when the diagnosis is made, we can perhaps change very early the impaired social development of autistic patients,” said Sirigu

Alex Martin, chief of cognitive neuropsychology at the United States National Institute of Mental Health, commented, “I think it’s going to be a very exciting finding for a lot of people.”

The study examined two groups of 13 individuals (11 men, 2 women). One group was composed of those with higher-functioning ASD and a control group of the same number of men and women without ASD. For two weeks there was no mediation administered and tests run which included social games and facial expression tests; then Oxytocin was inhaled and the tests rerun.

Brian Field is the co-founder of the Autism Support Network

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