Social support, oxytocin, and PTSD

Abstract

BackgroundA lack of social support and recognition by the environment is one of the most consistent risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and PTSD patients will recover faster with proper social support. The oxytocin system has been proposed to underlie beneficial effects of social support as it is implicated in both social bonding behavior and reducing stress responsivity, notably amygdala reactivity (Koch et al., 2014 Koch S. B., Van Zuiden M., Nawijn L., Frijling J. L., Veltman D. J., Olff M. Intranasal oxytocin as strategy for medication-enhanced psychotherapy of PTSD: Salience processing and fear inhibition processes. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014; 40: 242–256. [PubMed Abstract].[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Olff et al., 2010 Olff M., Langeland W., Witteveen A., Denys D. A psychobiological rationale for oxytocin in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. CNS Spectrums. 2010; 15(8): 522–530. [PubMed Abstract].[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Olff, 2012 Olff M. Bonding after trauma: On the role of social support and the oxytocin system in traumatic stress. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. 2012; 3: 18597. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v3i0.18597.[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). The amygdala is found to be hypersensitive in people with PTSD.MethodIn order to investigate neurobiological mechanisms underlying potential preventive and therapeutic effects of intranasal oxytocin, we performed a series of fMRI studies (funded with a prestigious NWO TOP grant): BONDS standing for “Boosting Oxytocin after trauma: Neurobiology and the Development of Stress-related psychopathology” in acutely traumatized persons admitted to the emergency department (Frijling et al., 2014 Frijling J. L., Van Zuiden M., Koch S. B., Nawijn L., Goslings J. C., Luitse J. S. Efficacy of oxytocin administration early after psychotrauma in preventing the development of PTSD: Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry. 2014; 28(14): 92.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]); BOOSTER “Boosting oxytocin after trauma: the effects of intranasal oxytocin administration on emotional and motivational processing and neural activity in PTSD” in police officers with and without PTSD.ResultsIn this presentation, we present the BOOSTER results on the effects of a single oxytocin administration on amygdala reactivity in response to emotional faces in PTSD patients versus traumatized controls. We found significantly decreased bilateral amygdala reactivity towards emotional faces in PTSD patients compared to traumatized controls.ConclusionsThese promising results call for intervention studies such as studying the effects of medication (oxytocin) enhanced psychotherapy in PTSD patients.