Journal
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
Volume 122, Issue -, Pages 18-27Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.12.028
Keywords
Oxytocin; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Social functioning; Non-social domain improvement
Categories
Funding
- Lam Woo Research Fund -Individual Grant [185605]
- Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
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The meta-analysis found that intranasal oxytocin can be regarded as an effective treatment for core aspects of ASD, particularly in social functioning. However, there was not strong evidence for symptom improvement in non-social domains.
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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