Trial reportMolecular psychiatry2020
Effect of intranasal oxytocin on the core social symptoms of autism spectrum disorder: a randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in Molecular psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 8 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
89 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 186 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effect of Intranasal Oxytocin on Social Interaction in Adults and Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Eye Tracking as a Treatment Monitoring Tool for Autism: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Pooled it
- Presymptomatic Biological, Structural, and Functional Diagnostic Biomarkers of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Pooled it
- Optimal dose of oxytocin to improve social impairments and repetitive behaviors in autism spectrum disorders: meta-analysis and dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Pharmacological intervention for irritability, aggression, and self-injury in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Benefits and harms of interventions to improve anxiety, depression, and other mental health outcomes for autistic people: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2023Pooled it
- In Search of Biomarkers to Guide Interventions in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.The American journal of psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The role of the oxytocinergic system in oral microbiome composition in children with autism: evidence from a randomized controlled trial of intranasal oxytocin.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Memantine to Treat Social Impairment in Youths With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Effects of multiple-dose intranasal oxytocin administration on social responsiveness in children with autism: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.Molecular autism · 2023Trial
- Genetic and epigenetic signatures associated with plasma oxytocin levels in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Trial
- Oral Administration of Oxytocin, Like Intranasal Administration, Decreases Top-Down Social Attention.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Intranasal Oxytocin in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.The New England journal of medicine · 2021Trial
- Oxytocin-induced increase in N,N-dimethylglycine and time course of changes in oxytocin efficacy for autism social core symptoms.Molecular autism · 2021Trial
- Oxytocin treatment attenuates amygdala activity in autism: a treatment-mechanism study with long-term follow-up.Translational psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Behavioral effects of multiple-dose oxytocin treatment in autism: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial with long-term follow-up.Molecular autism · 2020Trial
- Effects of intranasal oxytocin administration on empathy and approach motivation in women with borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Stable clique membership in male mouse societies requires oxytocin-enabled social sensory states.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Pain Expectation in Individuals With High Autistic Traits: Decision-Evaluation Processes and Oxytocin Modulation.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
29 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although small-scale studies have described the effects of oxytocin on social deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), no large-scale study has been conducted. In this randomized, parallel-group, multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in Japan, 106 ASD individuals (18-48 y.o.) were enrolled between Jan 2015 and March 2016. Participants were randomly assigned to a 6-week intranasal oxytocin (48IU/day, n = 53) or placebo (n = 53) group. One-hundred-three participants were analyzed. Since oxytocin reduced the primary endpoint, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) reciprocity, (from 8.5 to 7.7; P < .001) but placebo also reduced the score (8.3 to 7.2; P < .001), no between-group difference was found (effect size -0.08; 95% CI, -0.46 to 0.31; P = .69); however, plasma oxytocin was only elevated from baseline to endpoint in the oxytocin-group compared with the placebo-group (effect size -1.12; -1.53 to -0.70; P < .0001). Among the secondary endpoints, oxytocin reduced ADOS repetitive behavior (2.0 to 1.5; P < .0001) compared with placebo (2.0 to 1.8; P = .43) (effect size 0.44; 0.05 to 0.83; P = .026). In addition, the duration of gaze fixation on socially relevant regions, another secondary endpoint, was increased by oxytocin (41.2 to 52.3; P = .03) compared with placebo (45.7 to 40.4; P = .25) (effect size 0.55; 0.10 to 1.0; P = .018). No significant effects were observed for the other secondary endpoints. No significant difference in the prevalence of adverse events was observed between groups, although one participant experienced temporary gynecomastia during oxytocin administration. Based on the present findings, we cannot recommend continuous intranasal oxytocin treatment alone at the current dose and duration for treatment of the core social symptoms of high-functioning ASD in adult men, although this large-scale trial suggests oxytocin's possibility to treat ASD repetitive behavior.
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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.