STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that it's becoming popular even though scientists are not sure whether it's a safe or effective treatment for children.
JON HAMILTON: It's no wonder parents have such high hopes for oxytocin. So do a lot of researchers, like Jennifer Bartz at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
JENNIFER BARTZ: I think it definitely has promise, you know, and that's why we're studying it.
HAMILTON: Bartz says a dose given in a nasal spray seems to promote feelings of trust and empathy and bonding in both men and women. These are often impaired in people with autism.
BARTZ: Autism is associated with deficits in social cognition and social functioning. People have thought, well, perhaps oxytocin might be a good treatment for those deficits in autism.
HAMILTON: So Bartz and others have been testing this idea. One study in her lab looked at people's ability to recognize emotions in others. She says people with autistic traits usually aren't as good at this as other people.
BARTZ: But on oxytocin, their performance was indistinguishable. So we were really excited about this because it really suggests that it might be especially helpful for this population.
HAMILTON: Sue Carter, a biologist at the Brain-Body Center at the University of Illinois, says that's not much to go on.
SUE CARTER: If I had an autistic child, I would not try this because I wouldn't want my child to be one who we later discovered had been harmed in some way. At the moment, this is a very premature experiment and hasn't even been studied in kids.
HAMILTON: Oxytocin affects the part of the nervous system that controls things like heart rate, breathing and digestion. Prescription versions carry warnings about side effects, including bleeding and seizures. And Carter says that's just from short-term treatment with the hormone.
CARTER: The big problem here is that there isn't any research to speak of at all on the long-term effects of oxytocin, the effects of repeated treatments, at least in children.
HAMILTON: Geraldine Dawson is chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks and a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She says there's a pressing need for rigorous scientific studies of the hormone.
GERALDINE DAWSON: Some physicians are already administering oxytocin to children sometimes as young as two years of age. So it's very important that we good science behind that. Is it really effective? Which children is it most effective for? And importantly, are there any adverse effects?
HAMILTON: Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
INSKEEP: And that's Your Health for this Monday morning.
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