Oxytocin Autism Treatment

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Can you understand wanting to be your introverted self instead of someone else? Because that's why I wouldn't try it, even if it worked--I don't want to desire more human contact, and I would rather communicate in words than worry about faces and gestures. I'm happy as an introvert. I don't want to suddenly desire human contact all the time.

If the focus I have on my special interests suddenly got switched to other people, it wouldn't help me a bit. And, y'know, that feeling people describe when they're cuddling their cat or an infant? Yeah, I get that with cats and babies. I also get it when I'm fascinated with a special interest. I do NOT want to be that fascinated with random people. It would just set me up for a lot of pain.

Oxytocin wouldn't change that you're autistic. We already know that autism is in the structure of the brain. So, basically, what you have, in the ideal situation where this stuff actually works, is an autistic person who wants human contact, feels connected to others, mimics emotions and reads faces better than he used to... and is still odd enough to be utterly rejected.

Before we make use of a medication that lets autistics want to be with other people and read faces better when they are talking, we'd better solve the problem of those other people treating us like dirt whenever we try.

I'm willing to bet that a lot of the hoopla about oxytocin is due to the general public's idea that "loners are freaks"--i.e., that it's not normal to be introverted. But there's nothing wrong with being introverted; it hurts nobody and it causes no distress and that means they need to STOP pathologizing it.

Oxytocin is a hormone. The drug forms are pitocin and another which escapes me.

I also had failure to progress in labor with my first and was given pitocin. I did not experience anything like what the previous poster experienced. In fact, it had no mood altering affects to me (then again, when you're in hard labor, you aren't exactly noticing this crap).

However, the effect of naturally occurring oxytocin when I was breastfeeding an infant? That was a very lovely feeling I will always miss - all tied in with having a new baby. If biology didn't pay women off for nursing an infant, none of us would do it because it's tremendously difficult and at first none of it feels natural. You sit with the baby, and feel so happy and content warm feeling. It is just a calming feeling. Oxytocin is tied to bonding, and it's released with orgasm (more with a partner-involved orgasm than masturbation too, I read).

My guess is the effects from something like this properly administered in a very low dose would be subtle. In naturally occurring amounts this is not a mind-blowing-mood-altering experience, like a pain pill would be.

(edited to correct idiotic misspellings).

[picky]
Betsy--it's spelled "oxytocin"--FYI. Oxycontin is a completely unrelated painkiller.
[/picky]

I'll have to admit that it's encouraging to me that this would be a temporary effect. But you've got to remember that a lot of this stuff will be used on kids, if it turns out to work; and that means the same kids who are kept on stimulants or antipsychotics for years when it isn't actually helping them, and actually hindering their learning. This has a bigger potential for abuse even than those drugs, because you might get a quiet, zombie-like kid without behavior problems on antipsychotics, but if oxytocin really makes you want to interact, but has other effects that are harmful, the parent may keep the child on the drug just because the child now gives the parent the emotional fulfillment they have expected of him. That is a dangerous precedent to be setting. Children shouldn't be drugged because their parents want to feel loved; but you know that some of these curebie moms will be doing exactly that.

I am against meds in general since they don't really solve the problem but mostly drug the person in a way that it compensates for some portion of symptoms.

This being said, I think this drug is definitely better than others since, most drugs work on some SIMPLE issue like attention span or mood, and HOPE that these simple issues will affect some aspects of complex problem. On the other hand, the drug you described sounds like it adresses complex issue directly, since it is not known to make you happier or more focused; rather it makes you more social, period. And that is despite the fact that socializing is really a very complex phenomenon. Now isn't this, by itself, amaising?

Now like I said I am against all drugs. But if you want to try some, I would say this one would be far more reasonable than antidepressants/antipsychotic/stimulant ones.

I'm totally against drugs where it isn't a life sustaining necessity, of course. This drug sounds interesting but I'm highly skeptical it would really be that effective or useful in the first place. And you can't do anything about all the wannabe's or "curebie mom's" of the world so, whatever.

Also - I am highly non-interventional when it comes to any medication. And maybe I'm picking my own nit here but wouldn't it be hormonal therapy instead of drug therapy?

All I know is, maddening as he can be sometimes (me too, I'm sure) if someone changed my aspie husband to make him all warm and gooey, I would hate it.

Oxytocin is injected into livestock (and sometimes people) to hasten or cause stronger labor contractions. It also "makes the milk come down"...lactation.

heh

It is naturally released as well, when babies are nursing, as well as other times. It is, indeed, a hormone. Seems bizarre though, that it would be used to treat those on the spectrum. Can you imagine?

"Yeah...I don't have meltdowns anymore, but I have to wear a special bra with absorbent pads in it, because my meds make me lactate."

Hey, I'd try it, if it's effects are temporary.

Then again, I *am* a Psychophilospher (someone who studies the philosophy of the mind)...

Bumping this discussion because I spotted this today when I logged onto MSNBC: