Oxytocin and Autism Ranking:

Status Research

There are a number of limitations to all of the research studies published to date. For example:

• Four of the studies were single case designs with a small number of participants and two of these (Fukai et al, 2017 and Hirosawa et al, Epub) reported on the same group of participants.
• One of the controlled trials (Andari et al, 2010) was non-randomised and non-blinded. 
• One of the randomised controlled studies (Yatawara et al, 2015) had a very high level of drop outs (eight out of 39 participants).
• Some of the studies (such as Lin et al, 2014) included participants between the ages of 19 to 51, which is a large age range.
• Many of the randomised controlled studies (such as Althaus et al, 2015) used a single dose of oxytocin, which might not have been enough to demonstrate any effects.
• Three of the studies (for example, Hollander et al, 2003) used an intravenous infusion over a period of several hours in a hospital, which might not be a socially valid (convenient) way of administering oxytocin.
• Some of the studies (for example, Kosaka et al, 2015) suggested that oxytocin produced significant benefits when, in fact, the results were very limited.
• Some of the studies (for example Auyeung et al, 2015) reported that oxytocin increased the amount of time that some participants spent gazing at other people’s eyes which may or may not be a socially valid (useful) outcome.
• Some of the studies (such as Anagnostou E. et al, 2014) were run by researchers who were in receipt of grants from pharmaceutical companies which manufacture oxytocin.
• Most of the studies did not appear to involve autistic people in the design, implementation and evaluation of the study.

We believe it is worth noting that many of the studies we identified do not really constitute proper trials into the effectiveness or otherwise of oxytocin as an intervention for autistic people. Rather they are semi-theoretical studies, the results of which may have no relevance in the real world.

For a comprehensive list of potential flaws in research studies, please see ‘Why some autism research studies are flawed’.

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Nov 2017

Next Review

01 May 2024