The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Intranasal oxytocin in the treatment of autism spectrum disorders: A multilevel meta-analysis
Abstract
Intranasal oxytocin has been shown to promote social functioning and has recently been applied as a treatment for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The current meta-analysis aims to assess the crucial question of oxytocin's efficacy in the treatment of ASD. We performed a systematic literature search, including randomized, single- or double-blind/open-label and placebo-controlled clinical trials as well as single-arm, non-randomized and uncontrolled studies investigating exogenous oxytocin effect on ASD. A total of 28 studies (N = 726 ASD patients) met our predefined inclusion criteria. We used a multilevel meta-analytic model and found that oxytocin had beneficial effects on social functioning, but did not find strong evidence for symptoms improvement in the non-social domain. Our findings suggest that oxytocin administration can be regarded as an effective treatment for some core aspects of ASD, especially in the domain of social functioning, highlighting the promise of using oxytocin as a new-generation therapeutic to address core social impairments in ASD.
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“It is also likely that the effects of OXT in ASD are modulated by age, gender, and possibly genetic factors [77, 79, 90].”
From An Update on Psychopharmacological Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [90]
In the citing paper
“Nonetheless, as illustrated by a recent meta-analysis, there does seem to be overall beneficial effects of OXT on social symptoms of ASD, although this review included both children and adults [90].”
From An Update on Psychopharmacological Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (2022) · cites this paper as [90]
Citations
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Items 101–119 of 119
Is oxytocin an undeservedly forgotten hormone in men?
Tyuzikov, I. A., Grekov, E. A., & Smirnov, A. V. (2023) · Andrology and Genital Surgery · doi:10.17650/2070-9781-2023-24-2-66-76 · Cited by 1
Somaiya, M. P., Dani, A., Patkar, P., Shelke, S. B., Dave, M., & Shah, H. R. (2023) · Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health · doi:10.1177/09731342231179832 · Cited by 1
Epigenetics of autism spectrum disorder
Gropman, A. L., & Sadle, C. J. (2024) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-443-18516-8.00017-x · Cited by 1
Cosme, G., Arriaga, P., Rosa, P. J., Mehta, M. A., & Prata, D. P. (2023) · Journal of Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1177/02698811231158233 · Cited by 2
“Highly promising early studies (Averbeck et al., 2012) gave hope that pharmacological administration of OT may mitigate social behavioral deficits in these conditions (Huang et al., 2021; Shilling and Feifel, 2016).”
BackgroundResultMeier, M., Lonsdorf, T. B., LUPIEN, S. J., Tobias Stalder, A., Laufer, S., Sicorello, M., Linz, R., & Puhlmann, L. M. C. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/d2zvc
Haaf, R., Brandi, M., Albantakis, L., Lahnakoski, J. M., Henco, L., & Schilbach, L. (2022) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2007632/v1
Guoynes, C. D., & Marler, C. A. (2022) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2022.09.12.507587
“This dose is also analogous to those used in human clinical trials (Anagnostou et al., 2014; Huang et al., 2021).”
MethodGrzejszczak, J., Gabryelska, A., Gmitrowicz, A., & Strzelecki, D. (2023) · Diagnostics · doi:10.3390/diagnostics13030407
“Also promising appears to be the administration of intranasal oxytocin, for which effectiveness in improving social functioning has been shown in recent studies [24].”
Parsa, M., Mansouri, M., & Pouretemad, H. (2025) · Brain Research Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2025.111419
“Given that in our previous study we have shown that oxytocin does not have a significant effect on intact rats (Huang et al., 2021), in this study, in order to respect animal rights and reduce the number of animals used, a control-oxytocin group was not included among the groups.”
Daniëls, N., Moerkerke, M., Steyaert, J. G., Bamps, A., Debbaut, E., Prinsen, J., Tang, T. Y., der Donck, S. V., Boets, B., & Alaerts, K. (2024) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.26583870
Chaikovska, V. R., & Yoltukhovskii, M. V. (2025) · Reports of Vinnytsia National Medical University · doi:10.31393/reports-vnmedical-2025-29(4)-06
Oxytocin, vasopressin, and their crosstalk in sexually-dimorphic psychiatric conditions
Yamasue, H. (2026) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106641
Atila, C., Leibnitz, S., Nikaj, A., Liechti, M. E., de Quervain, D. J. ‐., & Christ‐Crain, M. (2026) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2025-109940
“MC-C is the guarantor.”
Does intranasal oxytocin reduce symptoms of mental disorders? A meta-analysis of clinical trials
Bonnieux, J. N., Gumuchian, S. T., Harboun, A., Trespalacios, F., Bélisle, K.-A., Haddad, A., Quintus-Bosz, O., McLellan, A., Chester-Trudel, L., Garred, D., et al. (2026) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106749
Sağlam, M. K. (2026) · Bratislavské lekárske listy/Bratislava medical journal · doi:10.1007/s44411-026-00597-z
“A recent meta-analysis reported that intranasal oxytocin exerted beneficial effects on social functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder [11].”
Zhang, Y., Pu, J., Shen, Z., Zhang, Y., Liu, J., Zhang, D., Deng, K., & Yao, Y. (2026) · World Neurosurgery · doi:10.1016/j.wneu.2026.125172
Kozlova, E. V., Denys, M. E., Bishay, A. E., Do, E. A., Lui, R., Luna, C. N., Lam, A. A., Piamthai, V., Hsiao, A., & Currás‐Collazo, M. (2026) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.64898/2026.07.18.739173
Zhu, J., Chen, S., Zhang, W., Li, J., Lin, X., Jin, R., & Peng, W. (2026) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.70365
Fang, G., Pan, W., Li, G., Ma, L., & Wei, J. (2026) · ALPHA PSYCHIATRY · doi:10.31083/ap45322
“Second, there is a fundamental difference in our statistical approaches: while we used the SMD consistently, Yi Huang et al. [24] pooled re-sults from three different effect size metrics (SMCR, SMD, and raw change scores), which may introduce heterogeneity and affect the comparability of the pooled…”
Influential
Metadata
- Authors
- Huang, Y., Huang, X., Ebstein, R. P., & Yu, R.
- Affiliations
- Lingnan University (HK)
- Peking University (CN)
- Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (CN)
- Hong Kong Baptist University (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Yu, Rongjun
- Venue
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-03
- Volume
- 122
- Pages
- 18-27
- ISSN
- 0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3120256748
- Semantic Scholar
- f48f0f3b5ee61a8b063bae805b9f9d5c343c51ac
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 3.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Keywords
- intranasal oxytocin, autism spectrum disorder, social functioning, social dysfunction, autism treatment
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Administration, Intranasal, Double-Blind Method, Humans, Oxytocin, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Treatment Outcome
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