Trial reportSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2016
Opioids and social bonding: naltrexone reduces feelings of social connection.
Trial report in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 2 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Endogenous mu-opioid modulation of social connection in humans: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Sickness and the Social Brain: Love in the Time of COVID.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Consummatory deficits in close social reward predict inflammation-induced depressed mood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Trial
- Chronic pain patients low in social connectedness report higher pain and need deeper pressure for pain relief.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Trial
- Opioid-blunted cortisol response to stress is associated with increased negative mood and wanting of social reward.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Effects of Mu-Opiate Receptor Gene Polymorphism rs1799971 (A118G) on the Antidepressant and Dissociation Responses in Esketamine Nasal Spray Clinical Trials.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals.Biology letters · 2020Trial
- Opioids and social bonding: Effect of naltrexone on feelings of social connection and ventral striatum activity to close others.Journal of experimental psychology. General · 2020Trial
- Naltrexone alters responses to social and physical warmth: implications for social bonding.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2019Trial
- Effects of extended-release naltrexone on the brain response to drug-related stimuli in patients with opioid use disorder.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2018Trial
- Blocking opioids attenuates physical warmth-induced feelings of social connection.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2015Trial
- Zebrafish behavioral phenomics reveals functional subtypes of autism risk genes.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Naltrexone dose-selectively modulates goal-directed behavior and the hypothalamic proteome in rats.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2025Article
- Oxytocin and opioid antagonists: A dual approach to improving social behavior.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Opioid Regulation of Social Homeostasis: Connecting Loneliness to Addiction.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- Emerging Medications for Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Review with Perspective on Mechanisms and Challenges.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- The influence of drug class on reward in substance use disorders.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2024Review
- Variation in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) moderates the influence of maternal sensitivity on child attachment.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- TheFrontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Opioidergic tuning of social attachment: reciprocal relationship between social deprivation and opioid abuse.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Close social bonds are critical to a happy and fulfilled life and yet little is known, in humans, about the neurochemical mechanisms that keep individuals feeling close and connected to one another. According to the brain opioid theory of social attachment, opioids may underlie the contented feelings associated with social connection and may be critical to continued bonding. However, the role of opioids in feelings of connection toward close others has only begun to be examined in humans. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study of naltrexone (an opioid antagonist), 31 volunteers took naltrexone for 4 days and placebo for 4 days (separated by a 10-day washout period). Participants came to the laboratory once on the last day of taking each drug to complete a task designed to elicit feelings of social connection. Participants also completed daily reports of feelings of social connection while on naltrexone and placebo. In line with hypotheses, and for the first time in humans, results demonstrated that naltrexone (vs placebo) reduced feelings of connection both in the laboratory and in daily reports. These results highlight the importance of opioids for social bonding with close others, lending support to the brain opioid theory of social attachment.
Indexed as
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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.