Oxytocin therapy and Oxytocin resistance

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GreenCherubim
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19 Oct 2014, 5:11 pm

Has anyone else had experience with Oxytocin therapy? Or have Oxytocin resistance?


I am a male adult with Aspergers. My father met someone who had had good success using oxytocin supplements to improve some of the issues with aspergers. Apparently they had Oxytocin deficiency and the oxytocin supplement helped. So I tried the doctor He recommended.

My oxytocin levels were tested and not only was I not oxytocin deficient, my oxytocin levels were higher than normal. However the behavioral survey I took with it put my oxytocin levels at low. This led them to believe that I have oxytocin resistant. I make plenty of oxytocin, but my oxytocin receptors do not function properly, or lack sensitivity to it.

They thought taking an Oxytocin supplement still might help me. So I started taking it and it made things worse. It caused increased anxiety and paranoia, less eye contact, dizzyness, and headaches. The doctor was incredibly surprised by this. She said the Oxytocin never had such side effects even at too high doses, but I do not think she has had much experience with people who are oxytocin resistant versus deficient.
She said it makes people feel cheerful and pleasant, and it certainly didn't for me.

I tried going off it and then I tried taking a very small dose. The very small dose seems to help me with some of my anxiety and social issues a little, but it is hard to say for sure. It could just be placebo effect, or the mild improvement could be imagined; I'm not sure. It certainly isn't the dramatic improvement the doctor said she had seem in some patients, and that she thought was possible for me.

The doctor was far more excited than me when we started, and she was somewhat surprised why I wasn't. I am in the science feild and I know better than to expect miracle cures, or to think everything will affectpeople in the same way. I thought it was worth a try, but my skepticism was not wrong.



olympiadis
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21 Dec 2014, 12:33 am

This really interests me. If it is a problem with receptors, then is there anything that can be done?


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GreenCherubim
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21 Dec 2014, 8:06 am

Probably not, at least not right now. At least not through oxytocin supplements, for me at least. In the future it might be possible to develop a drug that increases oxytocin sensitivity by some mechanism, since I presumably do have oxytocin receptors, even if they don't function fully (oxtocin plays many roles in the body, and I'm otherwise healthy). It would have to be studied in detail though.

And I've read some studies on oxytocin therapy that say it increases anxiety in those who are already anxious. So who knows? It's definitely an area that needs to be studied more.



olympiadis
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21 Dec 2014, 11:52 am

GreenCherubim wrote:
Probably not, at least not right now. At least not through oxytocin supplements, for me at least. In the future it might be possible to develop a drug that increases oxytocin sensitivity by some mechanism, since I presumably do have oxytocin receptors, even if they don't function fully (oxtocin plays many roles in the body, and I'm otherwise healthy). It would have to be studied in detail though.

And I've read some studies on oxytocin therapy that say it increases anxiety in those who are already anxious. So who knows? It's definitely an area that needs to be studied more.


I agree about the more study is needed.
It seems with SSRIs they didn't address the problem by simply adding more seratonin, but working with the receptor mechanisms.


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