ArticlePharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior2016
Peripheral oxytocin administration reduces ethanol consumption in rats.
Article in Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intranasal oxytocin blunts amygdala response to negative affective stimuli in males and females with alcohol use disorder: a randomized controlled cross-over trial.Psychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- A randomized controlled trial examining the effects of intranasal oxytocin on alcohol craving and intimate partner aggression among couples.Journal of psychiatric research · 2022Trial
- Oxytocin attenuates neural response to emotional faces in social drinkers: an fMRI study.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2021Trial
- Effects of Oxytocin Administration on Cue-Induced Craving in Co-occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and PTSD: A Within-Participant Randomized Clinical Trial.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2019Trial
- Oxytocin Reduces Alcohol Cue-Reactivity in Alcohol-Dependent Rats and Humans.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Intranasal vasopressin, but not oxytocin, decreases ethanol intake in socially housed mice.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin enhances neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity to attenuate age-related cognitive decline in aged mice.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2025Article
- Selective effects of oxytocin on alcohol drinking in subpopulations of male and female mice following intermittent predator stress.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2025Article
- Effects of systemic oxytocin receptor activation and blockade on risky decision making in female and male rats.Behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Emerging medications and pharmacological treatment approaches for substance use disorders.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2025Review
- The Relationship Between Oxytocin and Alcohol Dependence.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Oxytocin as a treatment for alcohol use disorder and heavy drinking: A narrative review.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Oxytocin Attenuates Yohimbine-Induced Reinstatement of Alcohol-Seeking in Female Rats via the Central Amygdala.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Male-selective effects of oxytocin agonism on alcohol intake: behavioral assessment in socially housed prairie voles and involvement of RAGE.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- The Role of Oxytocin and Vasopressin in Drug-Induced Reward-Implications for Social and Non-Social Factors.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Oxytocin and orexin systems bidirectionally regulate the ability of opioid cues to bias reward seeking.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Impact of adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure in male and female rats on social drinking and neuropeptide gene expression.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Actions of feeding-related peptides on the mesolimbic dopamine system in regulation of natural and drug rewards.Addiction neuroscience · 2022Article
- FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ESCALATION OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Review
- Barriers and Breakthroughs in Targeting the Oxytocin System to Treat Alcohol Use Disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The neuropeptide oxytocin interacts with mesolimbic dopamine neurons to mediate reward associated with filial behaviors, but also other rewarding behaviors such as eating or taking drugs of abuse. Based on its efficacy to decrease intake of other abused substances, oxytocin administration is implicated as a possible treatment for excessive alcohol consumption. We tested this hypothesis by measuring ethanol intake in male Sprague-Dawley rats injected with oxytocin or saline using two different ethanol self-administration paradigms. First, a dose-response curve was constructed for oxytocin inhibition of fluid intake using a modified drinking-in-the-dark model with three bottles containing .05% saccharine, 10% ethanol in saccharine, and 15% ethanol in saccharine. Doses of oxytocin tested were 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5mg/kg (I.P.). Next, rats received 0.3mg/kg oxytocin preceding operant sessions in which they were trained to lever-press for either plain gelatin or ethanol gelatin in order to compare oxytocin inhibition of ethanol intake versus caloric intake. For the three-bottle choice study, rats consumed significantly less ethanol when treated with the three higher doses of oxytocin on the injection day. In the operant study, 0.3mg/kg oxytocin significantly decreased ethanol gel consumption to a greater extent than plain gel consumption, both in terms of the amount of gel eaten and calories consumed. These data affirm oxytocin's efficacy for decreasing ethanol intake in rats, and confirm clinical studies suggesting oxytocin as a potential treatment for alcoholism.
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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.