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Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis

Oxytocin (OT) circuitry plays a major role in the mediation of prosocial behavior. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and have been suggested to display deficiencies in central OT mechanisms. The current preregiste...

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Autores principales: Moerkerke, Matthijs, Peeters, Mathieu, de Vries, Lyssa, Daniels, Nicky, Steyaert, Jean, Alaerts, Kaat, Boets, Bart
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34827545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111545
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author Moerkerke, Matthijs
Peeters, Mathieu
de Vries, Lyssa
Daniels, Nicky
Steyaert, Jean
Alaerts, Kaat
Boets, Bart
author_facet Moerkerke, Matthijs
Peeters, Mathieu
de Vries, Lyssa
Daniels, Nicky
Steyaert, Jean
Alaerts, Kaat
Boets, Bart
author_sort Moerkerke, Matthijs
collection PubMed
description Oxytocin (OT) circuitry plays a major role in the mediation of prosocial behavior. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and have been suggested to display deficiencies in central OT mechanisms. The current preregistered meta-analysis evaluated potential group differences in endogenous OT levels between individuals with ASD and neurotypical (NT) controls. We included 18 studies comprising a total of 1422 participants. We found that endogenous OT levels are lower in children with ASD as compared to NT controls (n = 1123; g = −0.60; p = 0.006), but this effect seems to disappear in adolescent (n = 152; g = −0.20; p = 0.53) and adult populations (n = 147; g = 0.27; p = 0.45). Secondly, while no significant subgroup differences were found in regard to sex, the group difference in OT levels of individuals with versus without ASD seems to be only present in the studies with male participants (n = 814; g = −0.44; p = 0.08) and not female participants (n = 192; g = 0.11; p = 0.47). More research that employs more homogeneous methods is necessary to investigate potential developmental changes in endogenous OT levels, both in typical and atypical development, and to explore the possible use of OT level measurement as a diagnostic marker of ASD.
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spelling pubmed-86158442021-11-26 Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis Moerkerke, Matthijs Peeters, Mathieu de Vries, Lyssa Daniels, Nicky Steyaert, Jean Alaerts, Kaat Boets, Bart Brain Sci Systematic Review Oxytocin (OT) circuitry plays a major role in the mediation of prosocial behavior. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and have been suggested to display deficiencies in central OT mechanisms. The current preregistered meta-analysis evaluated potential group differences in endogenous OT levels between individuals with ASD and neurotypical (NT) controls. We included 18 studies comprising a total of 1422 participants. We found that endogenous OT levels are lower in children with ASD as compared to NT controls (n = 1123; g = −0.60; p = 0.006), but this effect seems to disappear in adolescent (n = 152; g = −0.20; p = 0.53) and adult populations (n = 147; g = 0.27; p = 0.45). Secondly, while no significant subgroup differences were found in regard to sex, the group difference in OT levels of individuals with versus without ASD seems to be only present in the studies with male participants (n = 814; g = −0.44; p = 0.08) and not female participants (n = 192; g = 0.11; p = 0.47). More research that employs more homogeneous methods is necessary to investigate potential developmental changes in endogenous OT levels, both in typical and atypical development, and to explore the possible use of OT level measurement as a diagnostic marker of ASD. MDPI 2021-11-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8615844/ /pubmed/34827545 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111545 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Systematic Review
Moerkerke, Matthijs
Peeters, Mathieu
de Vries, Lyssa
Daniels, Nicky
Steyaert, Jean
Alaerts, Kaat
Boets, Bart
Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis
title Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis
title_full Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis
title_fullStr Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis
title_short Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis
title_sort endogenous oxytocin levels in autism—a meta-analysis
topic Systematic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34827545
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111545
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