NCT01081249

Effects of Oxytocin on Behavior and Physiology in a Psychotherapy Setting

Physiologic Correlates of Perceived [Therapist] Empathy and Social-Emotional Process During Psychotherapy: Testing Oxytocin in a Cross-Over Design Pilot Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 18 (actual)
• Sponsor: MacDonald, Kai, M.D. · Individual
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Subjects-currently in outpatient mental health care--will participate in 2 psychotherapy sessions, one with oxytocin spray and one with placebo spray. Sessions will be videotaped, and cortisol and heart rate will be measured. We hypothesize that oxytocin will have positive benefits on nonverbal behavior in the therapy session, as well as have positive effects on subjective anxiety, cortisol and heart rate.

Conditions

• Behavior
• Anxiety

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Placebo then intranasal oxytocin	Participant received intranasal placebo spray at first psychotherapy session, and received a single dose of 40 IU intranasal oxytocin at the second session.
DRUG	Intranasal oxytocin then placebo	Participant received a single dose of 40 IU intranasal oxytocin at the first psychotherapy session, and received a similar dose of intranasal placebo spray at the second session.

Timeline

• Start date: 2008-12-01
• Primary completion: 2012-07-01
• Completion: 2012-07-01
• First posted: 2010-03-05
• Last updated: 2014-10-16
• Results posted: 2014-10-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States