Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2014
Effects of MDMA and Intranasal oxytocin on social and emotional processing.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03752918 (The Effects of MDMA on Prefrontal and Amygdala Activation in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 73 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effects of MDMA on Prefrontal and Amygdala Activation in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 141 citations in OpenAlex.
- A meta-analytic analysis of the acute effects of MDMA on empathy and emotion recognition in humans.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Adverse events in clinical treatments with serotonergic psychedelics and MDMA: A mixed-methods systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the MDMA Model to Address Social Impairment in Autism.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Acute effects of R-MDMA, S-MDMA, and racemic MDMA in a randomized double-blind cross-over trial in healthy participants.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Effects of four-week intranasal oxytocin administration on large-scale brain networks in older adults.Neuropharmacology · 2024Trial
- The 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine enhances early visual processing for salient socio-emotional stimuli.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Trial
- MDMA enhances positive affective responses to social feedback.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Detection of acute 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) effects across protocols using automated natural language processing.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- MDMA Increases Cooperation and Recruitment of Social Brain Areas When Playing Trustworthy Players in an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Trial
- 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder: A randomized phase 2 controlled trial.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2018Trial
- Oxytocin Reduces Alcohol Cue-Reactivity in Alcohol-Dependent Rats and Humans.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Acute effects of lisdexamfetamine and D-amphetamine on social cognition and cognitive performance in a placebo-controlled study in healthy subjects.Psychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Direct comparison of the acute subjective, emotional, autonomic, and endocrine effects of MDMA, methylphenidate, and modafinil in healthy subjects.Psychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Oxytocin receptor gene variations and socio-emotional effects of MDMA: A pooled analysis of controlled studies in healthy subjects.PloS one · 2018Trial
- LSD Acutely Impairs Fear Recognition and Enhances Emotional Empathy and Sociality.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Intimate insight: MDMA changes how people talk about significant others.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2015Trial
- MDMA: a social drug in a social context.Psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Plasma oxytocin concentrations following MDMA or intranasal oxytocin in humans.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2014Trial
- No evidence that MDMA-induced enhancement of emotional empathy is related to peripheral oxytocin levels or 5-HT1a receptor activation.PloS one · 2014Trial
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
MDMA (± 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, 'ecstasy') is used recreationally, reportedly because it increases feelings of empathy, sociability, and interpersonal closeness. One line of evidence suggests that MDMA produces these effects by releasing oxytocin, a peptide involved in social bonding. In the current study, we investigated the acute effects of MDMA and oxytocin on social and emotional processing in healthy human volunteers. MDMA users (N = 65) participated in a 4-session, within-between-subjects study in which they received oral MDMA (0.75, 1.5 mg/kg), intranasal oxytocin (20 or 40 IU), or placebo under double-blind conditions. The primary outcomes included measures of emotion recognition and sociability (desire to be with others). Cardiovascular and subjective effects were also assessed. As expected, MDMA dose-dependently increased heart rate and blood pressure and feelings of euphoria (eg, 'High' and 'Like Drug'). On measures of social function, MDMA impaired recognition of angry and fearful facial expressions, and the larger dose (1.5 mg/kg) increased desire to be with others, compared with placebo. Oxytocin produced small but significant increases in feelings of sociability and enhanced recognition of sad facial expressions. Additionally, responses to oxytocin were related to responses to MDMA with subjects on two subjective measures of sociability. Thus, MDMA increased euphoria and feelings of sociability, perhaps by reducing sensitivity to subtle signs of negative emotions in others. The present findings provide only limited support for the idea that oxytocin produces the prosocial effects of MDMA.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.