Life Sciences Research Project
Does Oxytocin have an effect on children with autism? If so what are these effects?
Introduction
First of all Oxytocin is a hormone that is created in the brain, in the hypothalamus. It is transported to and secreted by, the pituitary gland. It acts as a hormone and as a brain neurotransmitter. Oxytocin has an anti-anxiety effect and may increase personal attachment and empathetic behaviour. Research has shown that oxytocin may be beneficial for people with autistic spectrum disorders. When it is released into to specific areas of the brain it may affect emotional, cognitive, and social behaviours these are known as “pro–social behaviours”.
Although there also has been research stating that these behaviour …show more content…
The source asks whether oxytocin can improve sociability in children with autism.
In this source it states that a treatment used to improve behavioural issues associated with autism, the treatment is a five week treatment which involves the inhalation of oxytocin nasal spray. It says that this treatment did in fact increase the social responsiveness in children with autism, but when the results were on a larger sample, they were not consistent.
There have been studies that a pro-longed use of the oxytocin nasal spray could actually decrease the bodies natural ability to produce oxytocin. Also it had results which showed that the oxytocin in people with autism was no lower than people without autism.
Within this source there has been a trial which has been completed by thirty-one children, which is where they used the nasal spray for five weeks. They had two groups which switched between oxytocin and a placebo, they had researchers observe the children over this time. The parents of these children and the researchers observed an improved social …show more content…
This source focuses on one child, even though the oxytocin nasal spray did dramatically improve Hayden Blue’s sociability. It doesn’t give an accurate conclusion to whether the oxytocin treatment is a treatment which will help large groups of people and has a high helping rate or if it’s just a case of coincidence.
Reverting back to my research it can be known that oxytocin does have a large effect on people with autism and it helps them in ways in which not many other hormones do in terms of the changes in social behaviours. But it is hard to come to a concise decision whether this is a way in which will help many people with autism over a long period of time or if the long term effects will be a large problem because the long term effects have not be explored a lot in terms of the research I have found because this experiment is rather recent and has not been tested to its full ability.
Also when I was conducting research for this topic I came across that there is no current cure for autism and this should be well known if the Oxytocin nasal spray is made widely available in the future, it is just a form of
Does Oxytocin have an effect on children with autism? If so what are these effects?
Introduction
First of all Oxytocin is a hormone that is created in the brain, in the hypothalamus. It is transported to and secreted by, the pituitary gland. It acts as a hormone and as a brain neurotransmitter. Oxytocin has an anti-anxiety effect and may increase personal attachment and empathetic behaviour. Research has shown that oxytocin may be beneficial for people with autistic spectrum disorders. When it is released into to specific areas of the brain it may affect emotional, cognitive, and social behaviours these are known as “pro–social behaviours”.
Although there also has been research stating that these behaviour …show more content…
The source asks whether oxytocin can improve sociability in children with autism.
In this source it states that a treatment used to improve behavioural issues associated with autism, the treatment is a five week treatment which involves the inhalation of oxytocin nasal spray. It says that this treatment did in fact increase the social responsiveness in children with autism, but when the results were on a larger sample, they were not consistent.
There have been studies that a pro-longed use of the oxytocin nasal spray could actually decrease the bodies natural ability to produce oxytocin. Also it had results which showed that the oxytocin in people with autism was no lower than people without autism.
Within this source there has been a trial which has been completed by thirty-one children, which is where they used the nasal spray for five weeks. They had two groups which switched between oxytocin and a placebo, they had researchers observe the children over this time. The parents of these children and the researchers observed an improved social …show more content…
This source focuses on one child, even though the oxytocin nasal spray did dramatically improve Hayden Blue’s sociability. It doesn’t give an accurate conclusion to whether the oxytocin treatment is a treatment which will help large groups of people and has a high helping rate or if it’s just a case of coincidence.
Reverting back to my research it can be known that oxytocin does have a large effect on people with autism and it helps them in ways in which not many other hormones do in terms of the changes in social behaviours. But it is hard to come to a concise decision whether this is a way in which will help many people with autism over a long period of time or if the long term effects will be a large problem because the long term effects have not be explored a lot in terms of the research I have found because this experiment is rather recent and has not been tested to its full ability.
Also when I was conducting research for this topic I came across that there is no current cure for autism and this should be well known if the Oxytocin nasal spray is made widely available in the future, it is just a form of