Trial reportPsychopharmacology2020
The effect of oxytocin, gender, and ovarian hormones on stress reactivity in individuals with cocaine use disorder.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex Differences in Opioid and Psychostimulant Craving and Relapse: A Critical Review.Pharmacological reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Cue-induced cocaine craving enhances psychosocial stress and vice versa in chronic cocaine users.Translational psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Menstrual Cycle and Progesterone-to-Estradiol Ratio Associated With Loss of Control and Craving in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Sex-Segregating Longitudinal Study.Addiction biology · 2026Observational
- Sex differences in stress responding in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of progesterone in cannabis use disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin Attenuates the Endocrine Disrupting Effects of Cocaine in the Female Rat.Endocrinology · 2025Article
- Sex differences in stress-modulated cocaine vulnerability: female rodents are more sensitive to the effects of stress exposure at different developmental stages.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Review
- Effects of intranasal oxytocin on cigarette withdrawal and smoking in the laboratory: Differences by sex and social functioning traits.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Differential prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) by gender and substance used in individuals with cannabis, cocaine, opioid, and tobacco use disorders.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2023Article
- Sex and drug differences in stress, craving and cortisol response to the trier social stress task.Psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- Oxytocin moderates corticolimbic social stress reactivity in cocaine use disorder and healthy controls.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Article
- Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD): Current Clinical Perspectives.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2022Review
- Consideration of sex as a biological variable in the translation of pharmacotherapy for stress-associated drug seeking.Neurobiology of stress · 2021Review
- Sex differences in vulnerability to addiction.Neuropharmacology · 2021Review
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 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleCocaine use disorder (CUD) is associated with dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which plays a critical role in the human stress response. Men and women with CUD differ in reactivity to social stressors. The hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin is involved in anxiolytic and natural reward processes, and has shown therapeutic potential for addictive disorders and stress reduction.
objectivesTo examine the impact of oxytocin (oxytocin (OXY) vs. placebo (PBO)) and gender (female (F) vs. male (M)) on response to a social stress task in individuals with CUD. To explore whether ovarian hormones moderate this stress response.
methodsOne hundred twelve adults with CUD were randomized to receive 40 IU intranasal oxytocin (n = 56) or matching placebo (n = 56). Forty minutes after drug administration, participants were exposed to a social stressor. Generalized linear mixed models were used to examine neuroendocrine (cortisol) and subjective (craving, stress) response at pre-stressor, stressor + 0, + 10, + 30, + 60 min.
resultsGender moderated the effect of oxytocin on neuroendocrine response (p = 0.048); women receiving oxytocin (F + OXY) showed blunted cortisol response compared to the other three groups (F + PBO; M + OXY; M + PBO). There was a main effect of gender on subjective stress response; women reported greater stress following the stressor compared to men (p = 0.016). Oxytocin had no significant effect on craving or stress, and gender did not moderate the effect of oxytocin on either measure. Higher endogenous progesterone was associated with lower craving response in women (p = 0.033).
conclusionsOxytocin may have differential effects in men and women with CUD. Women may be at greater risk for relapse in response to social stressors, but ovarian hormones may attenuate this effect.
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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.