Oxytocin and Emotion Recognition

• Sponsor: University Hospital Freiburg (Other)
• Overall Status: Completed
• CT.gov ID: NCT01216605
• Collaborator: (none)
• Enrollment: 56
• Location: 1
• Arms: 2
• Duration (Months): 2
• Patients Per Site Per Month: 27.9

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of a single dose of synthetic oxytocin on facial emotion recognition in healthy adult man. Pictures of emotional faces are presented very briefly for a few milliseconds in a backward-masking paradigm in order to vary the level of awareness. In a randomized placebo-controlled between-subject design, recognition performance is compared between a drug (24 IU oxytocin) and a placebo condition. We hypothesize that oxytocin enhances emotion recognition even for facial stimuli processed with limited awareness.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Health	Drug: Syntocinon 24 IU; Drug: Placebo	Phase 4

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Actual Enrollment: 56 participants
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Study Start Date: Nov 1, 2009
• Actual Primary Completion Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Actual Study Completion Date: Jan 1, 2010

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Active Comparator: Oxytocin	Drug: Syntocinon 24 IU
Placebo Comparator: Placebo	Drug: Placebo

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

1. Performance on a facial emotion recognition task [45 min. following drug administration]

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years to 40 Years
• Sexes Eligible for Study: Male
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

• Males

• 18 to 40 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any psychiatric diagnosis life-time

• Somatic disease

• IQ < 85

• Smoker

• Psychoactive medication

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	Department of PSychiatry University of Rostock	Rostock	D	Germany	18055

Sponsors and Collaborators

• University Hospital Freiburg

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: Gregor Domes, PhD, University of Freiburg

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01216605
• Other Study ID Numbers: X01A-DO1312/1-1; DO1312/1-1
• First Posted: Oct 7, 2010
• Last Update Posted: Oct 7, 2010
• Last Verified: Oct 1, 2010

• Additional relevant MeSH terms: Oxytocin

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Oct 7, 2010