Department of Psychology, Barnard College of Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 25;11(1):21004. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-99957-8.
Patients and psychotherapists often exhibit behavioral, psychological, and physiological similarity. Here, we test whether oxytocin-a neuropeptide that can enhance expressivity and social perception-influences time-lagged "linkage" of autonomic nervous system responses among participants and facilitators during group therapy. Physiological linkage estimates (n = 949) were created from ten cohorts, each with two facilitators (n = 5) and four to six participants (n = 48), over six weekly sessions of group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder. All participants of a cohort received oxytocin or placebo intranasally in a randomized double-blind procedure before each session. Cardiac interbeat intervals (IBI) were measured continuously during sessions to estimate physiological linkage, operationalized as one cohort-mate's IBI reactivity during one minute predicting another cohort-mate's IBI reactivity during the following minute. In oxytocin cohorts, participants and facilitators experienced significant physiological linkage to their cohort-mates (i.e., their physiological responses were predicted by the prior responses of their cohort-mates) and significantly more linkage than people in placebo cohorts. Both effects occurred during the first and second sessions but not later sessions. Results suggest that oxytocin may enhance psychosocial processes often associated with linkage-such as social engagement-in groups and highlight oxytocin's potential to improve group cohesion during group therapy.Clinical Trials Registration: NCT02881177, First published on 26/08/2016.
患者和心理治疗师经常表现出行为、心理和生理上的相似性。在这里，我们测试了催产素——一种可以增强表达力和社会感知的神经肽——是否会影响参与者和治疗师在团体治疗过程中自主神经系统反应的时间滞后“联系”。生理联系估计值（n=949）是从十个队列中创建的，每个队列有两个治疗师（n=5）和四个到六个参与者（n=48），共进行六次每周一次的团体治疗，用于治疗甲基苯丙胺使用障碍。所有参与者在每个队列的鼻腔内接受随机双盲程序的催产素或安慰剂。在治疗过程中连续测量心搏间期（IBI），以估计生理联系，即一个队列成员在一分钟内的 IBI 反应预测另一个队列成员在下一分钟的 IBI 反应。在催产素队列中，参与者和治疗师与他们的队列成员（即他们的生理反应是由他们的队列成员的先前反应预测的）有显著的生理联系，并且比安慰剂队列中的人有更多的联系。这两种效应都发生在第一和第二节课上，但不是后来的课上。结果表明，催产素可能会增强与联系相关的心理社会过程，例如社会参与，突出了催产素在团体治疗期间提高团体凝聚力的潜力。临床试验注册：NCT02881177，首次发表于 2016 年 8 月 26 日。
