Oxytocin and Social Behavior Over the Lifespan

Claremont Graduate University

Status and phase

Completed

Early Phase 1

Conditions

Social Activity

Treatments

Drug: oxytocin (Pitocin)

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00914953

NIH Grant 1R21AG029871-01A2

CNS-R21AG029871

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will investigate if intranasal oxytocin (a hormone naturally produced in the body) promotes motivation for, and engagement in, social activities in older adults.

Full description

Using a double-blind and placebo controlled design, this study seeks to determine if a short course of exogenous oxytocin (OT) will induce changes in social activities in residentially housed older adults (OAs) during a 10-day treatment period, and after it ends. Because OT is associated with peri-reproductive behaviors, OT release in OAs is expected to be attenuated relative to younger adults. If OT release is low in OAs as we hypothesize, augmenting OT may increase their desire for social interactions, increase the frequency of participation in social activities and augment the number of and quality of social ties, thereby providing protection against disease, early death, cognitive decline, and depression. Research in rodents suggests that social interactions themselves may change chronic OT levels (Carter & Keverne, 2002; Carter & Altemus, 1997), in a positive feedback loop. In order to demonstrate OT as the causal mechanism, we propose to infuse oxytocin and then track the desire for, quantity of, and quality of social activities.

Enrollment

41 patients

Sex

All

Ages

50+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

residentially housed
English fluency

Exclusion criteria

non ambulatory
severe psychiatric problems presently or in the recent past
severe medical problems (e.g., cancer, diabetes, advanced heart disease)
irregular heart beat
treatment using psychoactive medications (other than antiepileptics, mood stabilizers, or Ambien)
inability to adequately communicate with the research team
treatment with an experimental drug
excessive fatigue suggesting hypothyroidism