ReviewPsychoneuroendocrinology2019
Challenges for measuring oxytocin: The blind men and the elephant?
Review in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 100 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
100 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 177 citations in OpenAlex.
- Oxytocin dysfunction in severe mental illnesses following adverse childhood experiences: a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Music's context-dependent influence on oxytocin, social bonding, and emotion regulation: a systematic review.Frontiers in cognition · 2025Pooled it
- Oxytocin and postpartum depression: A systematic review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Pooled it
- Endogenous oxytocin and human social interactions: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletinPooled it
- Results of a phase Ib study of SB-121, an investigational probiotic formulation, a randomized controlled trial in participants with autism spectrum disorder.Scientific reports · 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
- Trial
- Parent-Training with Kangaroo Care Impacts Infant Neurophysiological Development & Mother-Infant Neuroendocrine Activity.Infant behavior & development · 2020Trial
- Oxytocin as a Biomarker of Differential Effects to SPACE vs. CBT Treatment of Child Anxiety Disorders.Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53Trial
- Article
- Neurophysin-I dynamics upon different pituitary provocation tests in healthy participants.Endocrine connections · 2026Article
- Old and new pituitary biomarkers: evidence for sex-specificity.Pituitary · 2026Review
- Milkability in dam-calf contact systems.Translational animal science · 2026Article
- Companion animals support human wellbeing and health: evolutionary, behavioral and physiological contexts.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Somatic Psychoeducational Intervention Is Associated with Increased Oxytocin Levels, Improved Autonomic Function, and Reduced Psychological Distress Symptoms in Medical and Social Care Professionals.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Increased salivary oxytocin correlates with lower self-reported interoceptive accuracy in functional neurological disorders.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- Altered association of plasmatic oxytocin with affective stress response in alcohol use disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- A Scoping Review on Salivary Oxytocin and Vasopressin Measurement in the Dog.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Development of a Methodology for Measuring Oxytocin in Feces: Insights from a Preliminary Study in Captive Lions (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Oxytocin, Vasopressin and Stress: A Hormetic Perspective.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
40 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
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Since its discovery more than a century ago, oxytocin has become one of the most intensively studied molecules in behavioral biology. In the last five years, Psychoneuroendocrinology has published more than 500 articles with oxytocin in the title, with many of these articles including measures of endogenous oxytocin concentrations. Despite longstanding interest, methods of measuring endogenous oxytocin are still in active development. The widely varying oxytocin concentrations detected by different approaches to measurement - and lack of correlation among these techniques - has led to controversy and confusion. We identify features of oxytocin that may help to explain why various approaches may be differentially sensitive to diverse conformational states of the oxytocin molecule. We propose that discrepancies in data generated by different methods of measurement are not necessarily an indicator that some methods are valid whereas others are not. Rather, we propose that current challenges in the measurement of oxytocin may be analogous to the parable of the blind men and the elephant, with different methods of sample preparation and measurement being sensitive to different states in which the oxytocin molecule can exist.
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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.