Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Department of Neuropeptide Research in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2022 Oct;141:104859. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104859. Epub 2022 Sep 7.
The first clinical applications of oxytocin (OT) were in obstetrics as a hormone to start and speed up labor and to control postpartum hemorrhage. Discoveries in the 1960s and 1970s revealed that the effects of OT are not limited to its peripheral actions around birth and milk ejection. Indeed, OT also acts as a neuromodulator in the brain affecting fear memory, social attachment, and other forms of social behaviors. The peripheral and central effects of OT have been separately subject to extensive scrutiny. However, the effects of peripheral OT-particularly in the form of administration of synthetic OT (synOT) around birth-on the central nervous system are surprisingly understudied. Here, we provide a narrative review of the current evidence, suggest putative mechanisms of synOT action, and provide new directions and hypotheses for future studies to bridge the gaps between neuroscience, obstetrics, and psychiatry.
催产素（OT）的首次临床应用是在妇产科，作为一种启动和加速分娩以及控制产后出血的激素。20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代的发现表明，OT 的作用不仅限于其在出生和乳汁分泌周围的外周作用。事实上，OT 还作为一种神经调质在大脑中发挥作用，影响恐惧记忆、社会依恋和其他形式的社会行为。OT 的外周和中枢作用已经分别受到广泛的关注。然而，外周 OT 的作用——特别是在分娩时给予合成 OT（synOT）的形式——对中枢神经系统的影响却出人意料地研究不足。在这里，我们提供了当前证据的叙述性综述，提出了 synOT 作用的假设机制，并为未来的研究提供了新的方向和假设，以弥合神经科学、妇产科和精神病学之间的差距。
