De werking van oxytocine bij autisme

Oxytocin is viewed as the hormone of calm, healing and love, and plays an important role in establishing and maintaining social relationships. As autism is characterized by difficulties in social relationships (poor empathy), a dysregulated oxytocin system could possibly be an underlying factor. This article provides information about the blood-brain levels of oxytocin in autism and the effects of oxytocin nasal spray for improving empathy in autism. The information in this article is partly based on a recently finished scientific study of the University of Groningen on the effects of oxytocin nasal spray in young men with autism. The effects of oxytocin in autism appear to be a complicated scientific puzzle in which oxytocin levels in this patient group are not simply reduced and in which only a selective group appears to benefit from oxytocin nasal spray for enhancing empathy.