ArticlePLoS biology2019
Oxytocin blocks enhanced motivation for alcohol in alcohol dependence and blocks alcohol effects on GABAergic transmission in the central amygdala.
Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intranasal Oxytocin for Alcohol Use Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Multisite Trial Assessing Efficacy and Safety.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Trial
- 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
- Review
- Intranasal Vasopressin Decreases Voluntary Ethanol Drinking in Single- and Group-Housed Mice Through Mechanisms Involving Vasopressin 1a and 1b Receptors.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Sex differences in insular cortex function in persistent alcohol drinking despite aversion in mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Intranasal vasopressin, but not oxytocin, decreases ethanol intake in socially housed mice.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- The analgesic effect of neuropeptide S (NPS) in alcohol-dependent male and female rats.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Design of Experiments (DoE)-Optimized Polymeric Oxytocin Nanoparticles for Enhanced Nose-to-Brain Delivery.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Noradrenaline Modulates Central Amygdala GABA Transmission and Alcohol Drinking in Female Rats.Biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- Alcohol and the endocrine system: A critical review of disruptions, potential mechanisms, and health implications.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Review
- Oxytocin significantly enhances GABAergic transmission in the central amygdala of alcohol-naïve and alcohol-dependent female rats.Neuropharmacology · 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
- Effect of oxytocin on cardiovascular modulation in normal and post-traumatic stress disorder model rats.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Oxytocin-Mediate Modulation of Splenic Immunosuppression in Chronic Social Stress Through Neuroendocrine Pathways.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Oxytocin in periaqueductal gray plasticly regulates strain-dependent social recognition memory in mice, modeling social identity.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Effects of systemic oxytocin receptor activation and blockade on risky decision making in female and male rats.Behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Guilt and shame and its relation to oxytocin in patients with depression and alcohol addiction.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Analgesic effect of oxytocin in alcohol-dependent male and female rats.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Emerging medications and pharmacological treatment approaches for substance use disorders.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2025Review
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Oxytocin administration has been reported to decrease consumption, withdrawal, and drug-seeking associated with several drugs of abuse and thus represents a promising pharmacological approach to treat drug addiction. We used an established rat model of alcohol dependence to investigate oxytocin's effects on dependence-induced alcohol drinking, enhanced motivation for alcohol, and altered GABAergic transmission in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). Intraperitoneal oxytocin administration blocked escalated alcohol drinking and the enhanced motivation for alcohol in alcohol-dependent but not nondependent rats. Intranasal oxytocin delivery fully replicated these effects. Intraperitoneal administration had minor but significant effects of reducing locomotion and intake of non-alcoholic palatable solutions, whereas intranasal oxytocin administration did not. In dependent rats, intracerebroventricular administration of oxytocin or the oxytocin receptor agonist PF-06655075, which does not cross the blood-brain barrier (i.e., it would not diffuse to the periphery), but not systemic administration of PF-06655075 (i.e., it would not reach the brain), decreased alcohol drinking. Administration of a peripherally restricted oxytocin receptor antagonist did not reverse the effect of intranasal oxytocin on alcohol drinking. Ex vivo electrophysiological recordings from CeA neurons indicated that oxytocin decreases evoked GABA transmission in nondependent but not in dependent rats, whereas oxytocin decreased the amplitude of spontaneous GABAergic responses in both groups. Oxytocin blocked the facilitatory effects of acute alcohol on GABA release in the CeA of dependent but not nondependent rats. Together, these results provide converging evidence that oxytocin specifically and selectively blocks the enhanced motivation for alcohol drinking that develops in alcohol dependence likely via a central mechanism that may result from altered oxytocin effects on CeA GABA transmission in alcohol dependence. Neuroadaptations in endogenous oxytocin signaling may provide a mechanism to further our understanding of alcohol use disorder.
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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.