Autism and Oxytocin

[Praziquantel86]

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I received this prescription (for a 7 year old boy) earlier today:

Oxytocin
10-20 units QAM

No indication or route specified, doctor was not in the office to clarify. The mother said is was supposed to be an oral treatment to help with her son's autism. I've asked at least a dozen pharmacists, students and professors, none of them have ever heard of it.

I did a literature search, and found a few articles in developmental neurobiology journals showing a possible link between decreased oxytocin levels or mutations in the oxytocin receptor and autism. Nothing anywhere near the level of evidence needed to make anything more than a guess at a vague association.

So this raises a few questions. First, and most obvious, is the fact that oxytocin is broken down almost instantly in the GI tract and never reaches circulation when taken orally. Second, even if it did make it into circulation, the effective half-life is about a minute. Finally, barring the previous two, what good would this do anyways?

Have any of you ever seen a similar prescription (maybe for nasal or IV oxytocin)? And if so, have you seen any literature or evidence to support it? I'm really looking forward to hearing back from the doctor on this one...

 

[eeyore spice]

Oxytocin sounds kind of reasonable for autism...like I can see where the hypothesis comes from, though I've never seen any studies on it.

But why would it even be available in an oral dosage form? Or was this in a compounding pharmacy?

 

[Pharmavixen]

In the studies, it's given intranasally or IV.

But it's extremely preliminary research.

 

[Praziquantel86]

In the studies, it's given intranasally or IV.

But it's extremely preliminary research.

Have you actually studies administering oxytocin to autistic children? All I could find were a few papers explaining relatively decreased serum oxytocin levels in autistic children.

 

[Farmercyst]

I sent this to our IV pharmacist who does some personal research on autism spectrum disorders. She emailed me a list of about 8 links, but I haven't looked to see what they are.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Oxytocin-...-Bonding-Issues,-and-More---Part-2&id=1989030
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021212247.htm
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20061105020921data_trunc_sys.shtml
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556321
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march4/med-autism-030409.html
http://www.not-autism.org/?p=345
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16904652
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-treatment-for-autism-holds-promise-69878372.html

notice many aren't exactly scholarly (scienceagogo.com 🙄)

 

[Praziquantel86]

Thanks for posting those!

Two of those mentioned an actual treatment with oxytocin, as opposed to a link between the two. Looks like there were some preliminary results with an oxytocin infusion versus placebo, but nothing about intermittent dosing.

It seems to make sense that benefit (if any) would only occur during the course of the infusion, given the incredibly short half-life of the drug.

I'm interested to find out what information this physician was working off of that I can't find.

 

[Pharmavixen]

Contact the physician and ask.

There are a lot of dubious treatments for autism out there, like the chelation therapy and Lupron.

 

[Praziquantel86]

Contact the physician and ask.

There are a lot of dubious treatments for autism out there, like the chelation therapy and Lupron.

I tried, he was out of the office the last time I was in.

 

[alexd10]

I'd be interested to know the physician's basis too. Please keep us posted.

 

[Farmercyst]

I wonder about fenugreek then.