Published: Oct 22, 2013 | Updated: Oct 22, 2013
By John Gever

Intranasal oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone,” intensified the painkilling effect of placebo in a clinical study, suggesting a physical basis for the placebo effect, researchers said.

Among 75 healthy young men exposed to painful heat stimuli on their forearms in the randomized, double-blind study, ratings of a placebo cream’s analgesic effect were greater after the participants received active intranasal oxytocin than when they snorted a saline solution, with a difference of 5.76 points out of 60 (95% CI 0.59-10.93,P=0.03), according to Ulrike Bingel, MD, of the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany, and colleagues.

“To our knowledge, our study provides the first experimental evidence that placebo responses can be pharmacologically enhanced by the application of intranasal oxytocin,” they wrote in a research letter appearing in the Oct. 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Full Story:  http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/42418