Intranasal Oxytocin Increases Positive Communication and Reduces Cortisol Levels During Couple Conflict

“Another study showed that intranasal OXT increased positive communication behaviour in both men and women during a couple conflict, and reduced plasma cortisol levels during the conflic”

“…trust and altruism, stimulate affiliative social interactions and approach behavior, and enhance emotional empathy (e.g., Alvares et al., 2010; Ditzen et al., 2009; Domes et al., 2010; Kemp and Guastella, 2010; Hurlemann et al., 2010; Kosfeld et al., 2005; Theodoridou et al., 2009; Zak et…”

“Heterosexual couples receiving intranasal Oxt prior to a videotaped “conflict discussion” display significantly increased positive communication behaviors (such as eye contact, self-disclosure, and positive body language) than couples treated with placebo (Ditzen et al., 2008).”

“Furthermore, intranasal oxytocin reduces amygdala activation and cortisol increases to emotional stimuli (20, 37).”

“In another study, Ditzen and colleagues [39] show that 40 IU intranasal OT increases positive communication behavior during a couple conflict in both men and women, and significantly reduces cortisol reactivity, which is in line with animal studies indicating that central OT facilitates pair-bonding behavior.”

“Similar mechanisms may be at play in humans, as intranasal OT increases positive communication during couple conflict (Ditzen et al. 2009).”

“nication (Ditzen et al., 2009) and plasma OT was related to positive”

“…ability to “read the mind” of another person (Domes, Heinrichs, Michel, Berger, & Herpertz, 2007), paternal responsiveness to infants during play (Naber, van IJzendoorn, Deschamps, van Engeland, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2010), and positive communication during couple conflict (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“Compassion, and elevation indirectly, have been associated with the release of oxytocin, which reduces activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and is negatively associated with cortisol (Barraza & Zak, 2009; Ditzen et al., 2009; Silvers & Haidt, 2008).”

“…effects of oxytocin administration on stress reactivity include decreases in subjective stress ratings (Heinrichs et al., 2003), as well as increases in parasympathetic cardiac control (Norman et al., 2011) and decreases in salivary cortisol levels (Ditzen et al., 2009; Linnen et al., 2012).”

“Together, these studies demonstrate that intranasal OT can induce different behavioral responses, but even when behavioral responses are the same (Ditzen et al., 2009), the neuronal mechanisms through which OT is mediating these behavioral responses seems to be consistently different in males versus females.”

“In addition, couples receiving intranasal oxytocin prior to a videotaped “conflict discussion” show an increase in positive communication behaviors (105).”

“ehavior during couple conflict (19,20), decrease amygdala”

“, 2010), and couples given intranasal oxytocin rather than placebo engage in more constructive discussions of relationship conflicts (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“In a placebo controlled experiment, for example, intranasal administration of OT—a method of delivery that readily allows the neuropeptide access to the brain—significantly increased positive communication between couples, as indexed by eye-contact, curiosity/care, and agreement scores [70].”

“Oxytocin is found to increase social interaction [234], decrease stress [235–237], lower pain thresholds, produce anti-inflammatory effects [238,239], lower anxiety [240], and increase”

“For example, romantic partners exposed to oxytocin display more positive communication during conflict discussions (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“Reciprocally, intranasal OT administration reduces the conflict-promoted cortisol response and increases positive social communication (43).”

“self -report &obs Ditzen et al. (2009) 24 M 24 F 47 M 47 F 40 IU single Syntocinon Novartis Not reported 0 0 0 Physiological questionnaire; checklist Medical assessment; BP & HR”

“Intranasal administration of OXT increases ratings of facial attractiveness (27), positive communication behavior during couple conflicts (28), and may facilitate the fidelity of men in a monogamous relationship by making them keep a greater distance from other women (29).”

“…included both sexes either had fewer females than males (e.g. Guastella et al., 2009) or had equal numbers of males and females but relatively small samples (e.g. Savascan et al., 2008) with the only exception of a very recent study by Ditzen et al. (2009) which used a sample comparable to ours.”

“(2011) found higher activations among romantically attached individuals in regions implicated in pair-bonding in monogamous rodents, and OTadministration has shown to increase couples’ positive communication (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“While it has been reported to reduce conflict between couples (Ditzen et al., 2009), this may be a generalized effect of its prosocial actions independent of relationship status.”

“, 2012), couple interaction (Ditzen, Nater, et al., 2012; Ditzen et al., 2009), and social cognition, namely empathic evaluation of emotions (Domes, Heinrichs, Michel, et al.”

“For instance, oxytocin administered to humans reduced salivary cortisol (e.g., Ditzen et al., 2009; Linnen, Ellenbogen, Cardosa, & Joober, 2012), amygdala activity (Kirsch et al., 2005), and subjective stress ratings (Heinrichs, Baumgartner, Kirschbaum, & Ehlert, 2003) during stressful laboratory…”

“2009 [42] 23 M, 23 F 40 IU intranasally OXT increased positive communication during couple conflict and reduced salivary cortisol level Double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subjects design Heinrichs et al.”

“…cooperation, affiliation, and positive communication, have been associated with oxytocin, examined as both plasma oxytocin (Feldman et al. 2007) and exogenously administered oxytocin (Ditzen et al. 2009, Kosfeld et al. 2005) in animals and humans (see Meyer-Lindenberg et al. 2011 for a review).”

“…showed the effects of OT on social adaptation throughout life, including increased trust (Kosfeld et al., 2005), more responsive couple interaction (Ditzen et al., 2009), decreased social fear (Kirsch et al., 2005), and improved social skills among autistic individuals (Andari et al., 2010).”

“Oxytocin has been shown to inrease empathy (19,20), theory of mind (21), trust (22), altruism 23), and positive communication between couples (24) and to mprove social functioning in conditions such as autism and chizophrenia (25).”

“When asked to discuss an area of conflict in their relationship (designed to induce stress), postdiscussion cortisol levels were significantly lower in those couples who had previously received OT (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“…OT and OT antagonists have been delivered into the brain by several peripheral routes (e.g., intranasal OT: Born et al., 2002; Heinrichs et al., 2003; Parker et al., 2005; Ditzen et al., 2009; per os (p.o.) and intravenous OT-receptor antagonist: Thompson et al., 1997; Boccia et al., 2007).”

“This is consistent with other studies that have not found differences between men and women on the association between oxytocin and marital behaviors (Grewen et al., 2005; Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“It has previously been shown that application of vasopressin to hippocampal cells can enhance neurotransmission, leading to long-term potentiation (Rong et al., 1993; Chepkova et al., 1995).”

“Oxytocin mediates social behavior (Heinrichs et al., 2009) and regulates stress and anxiety (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“OT administration also facilitates positive communication (Ditzen et al., 2009; Gouin et al., 2010), reduces psychological arousal to social threat (Norman et al., 2010a) and interacts with social support to decrease physiological stress reactivity (Heinrichs et al., 2003).”

“With respect to HPA regulation in humans, it has been demonstrated that intranasal oxytocin predicts reduced cortisol levels after experimentally induced couple conflicts (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“…stimuli (Baumgartner et al, 2008; Domes et al, 2007a; Gamer et al, 2010; Kirsch et al, 2005), improving social and emotion recognition (Domes et al, 2007b; Guastella et al, 2008; Rimmele et al, 2009), attachment (Buchheim et al, 2009) and heterosexual couples interaction (Ditzen et al, 2009).”

“In humans, OT attenuates anxiety and stress (Ditzen et al., 2009; Heinrichs et al., 2003), promotes trust (Kosfeld et al.”

“, 2003) and to mediate the positive and buffering effects of social support (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“, 2002)– —decreases cortisol levels during interpersonal stress (Ditzen et al., 2009; Quirin et al., 2011; Linnen et al., 2012) and during the recovery phase following a public speech stressor (Heinrichs et al.”

“Oxytocin also increases positive communication in adult couples (Ditzen et al., 2009), and is linked to higher levels of partner support (Grewen, Girdler, Amico, & Light, 2005).”

“…of AVP, for example, has been shown to increase salivary COR levels in a social stress test (de Winter et al., 2003; Ebstein et al., 2009; Patchev & Almeida, 1995), while intranasal administered OXT reduced the COR response to social stress (Ditzen et al., 2009; Heinrichs et al., 2003).”

“, 2000; Ludwig and Leng, 2006; Campbell, 2008) and may be involved in romantic love, trust, and fear in humans (Koshfeld et al., 2005; Zeki, 2007; Domes et al., 2007; Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“Furthermore, intranasal oxytocin increased ositive communication during couple conflict, and limited the corisol rise relative to that observed among couples that received lacebo (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“Limiting ourselves to the human studies over the last few years, the main outcomes concerned effects on fear and (social) anxiety (Fischer-Shofty et al., 2009; Guastella et al., 2009; Xu et al., 1996) , trust, social stimuli and rejection (Alvares et al., 2010; Baumgartner et al., 2008; Norman et al., 2010) , responsi…”

“…measures of stress and anxiety with inconclusive results; whereas some studies consider OT as a neuroendocrine marker of stress (Taylor et al., 2006, 2010), others emphasize its anxiolytic effects (Heinrichs et al., 2003; Light et al., 2005; Gordon et al., 2008; Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“conflict discussion accompanied by lower rise in salivary cortisol levels [49].”

“In humans, OT has been shown to modulate social behavior, including interpersonal trust, eye gaze, facial memory, and emotion perception (Ditzen et al., 2009; Domes et al., 2007; Guastella et al., 2008; Kosfeld et al., 2005).”

“Thus, it has been reported that OT administration attenuates glucocorticoid secretion (Ditzen et al., 2009; Heinrichs et al., 2003; Neumann, 2002; Neumann et al., 2000; Windle et al., 1997) and stress-induced increases in arterial pressure (Holst et al., 2002; Windle et al., 1997).”

“ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 23 July 2013 doi: 10.3389/fnins.2013.00128”

“…shown to increase levels of the structurallyrelated neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP; Weisman et al., 2013c), and to alter levels of salivary cortisol (Ditzen et al., 2009; Weisman et al., 2013b), suggesting an effect of OT on other hormones which are specifically related to paternal care.”

“Similar doses of OT have been administered to subjects in previous studies of social functioning (Andari et al., 2010; Feifel et al., 2010; Guastella et al., 2008; Hollander et al., 2007; Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“…various social behaviors: for example, it increases trust (but not risk behavior) in economic games (Baumgartner et al, 2008; Kosfeld et al, 2005) and reduces the behavioral and physiological signs of stress during couple conflict (Ditzen et al, 2009) or psychosocial stress (Heinrichs et al, 2003).”

“We note, importantly, that as in other studies of OTand cortisol effects (Ditzen et al., 2009), we did not see a stress-induced elevation in cortisol in our experiment, perhaps due to the toobenign nature of our experimental task (which was not explicitly socioevaluative (Dickerson and Kemeny, 2004)), or perhaps due t…”

“, 2012) and that associated with couple conflict (Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“Oxytocin administration was also found to increase the proportion of positive communication behaviors and to reduce cortisol levels during couple conflict discussions (107) and to increase the attractiveness of the intimate partners (108).”

“It has been shown, for example, that the peptide enhances positive communication in relation to negative behavior during couple conflicts and reduces cortisol saliva levels after the conflict (82).”

“More recently, studies in humans have demonstrated that OXT administration increases pro-social behaviors like trust, empathy, and willingness to take social risks (Kosfeld et al, 2005), whereas dampening psychophysiological responses to stressors (Ditzen et al, 2009).”

“Intranasal administration of OT (IN-OT) in humans has been documented in the regulation of anxiety [10–14] and stress [15–19], the initiation of positive social interactions [16,20–22], and the promotion of social cognition [23–25] and prosocial behaviors [26–28].”

“…in humans have found corresponding decreases in levels of plasma cortisol in response to stress (Legros, 2001), and the administration of intranasal oxytocin is known to attenuate the salivary cortisol response in response to various stressors (Cardoso et al., 2013; Ditzen et al., 2009).”

“This dose was selected based on previous studies that have used similar doses of oxytocin (Ditzen et al. 2009; Zak et al. 2007).”

“In situations where the experimental manipulation does not increase salivary cortisol levels, OXT may attenuate stress axis activity (Ditzen et al., 2009; Linnen et al., 2012) but this modulatory influence may itself depend on developmental experiences (Meinlschmidt and Heim, 2007), and there are also negative studies…”