In patients with schizophrenia on risperidone, adjunct intranasal oxytocin improved the PANSS positive subscale more than placebo by week 8.
In plain wordsIn people with schizophrenia taking risperidone, oxytocin spray improved positive symptoms more than placebo after 8 weeks.
- Peptide
- Oxytocin
- Outcome
- DecreasePANSS positive subscale reduction at week 8
- Study
n = 40
- Comparator
- Placebo
- Analysis
- Primary
- Outcome group
- Anxiety and mood · Mental health and mood
- Studied dose
- 20 IU twice daily in week 1, then 40 IU twice daily · intranasal · 8 weeksAs given in this study (human).
Measurements
- Cohen's d
- 1.2 NA
- PANSS positive
- Score reduction
- 20%
- oxytocin
- Score reduction
- 4%
- placebo
Source sentences
By week 8, patients in the oxytocin group showed significantly greater improvement on the positive (Cohen's d = 1.2, 20 % vs. 4 % reduction in score, p < 0.001)
2 context sentences(design, population, supporting numbers)
Forty patients (male and female gender) aged 18-50 years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (DSM-IV-TR) who were on a stable dose of risperidone for a minimum of 1 month and who were chronically partially responsive to antipsychotic monotherapy were included in the study.
The patients were randomly assigned to oxytocin intranasal spray (Syntocinon(®); Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) or placebo intranasal spray containing normal saline (ACER, Tehran, Iran) for 8 weeks. Oxytocin spray was administered as 20 IU (five sprays) twice a day for the first week followed by 40 I…