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Salivary sex hormone levels following oxytocin administration in autistic and typical women

Tanya L. Procyshyn, Michael V. Lombardo, Meng-Chuan Lai, Bonnie Auyeung, Sarah K. Crockford, Julia Deakin, Sentil Soubramanian, Akeem Sule, Simon Baron-Cohen, Richard A. I. Bethlehem
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/679282
Tanya L. Procyshyn
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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  • For correspondence: tlp30@cam.ac.uk
Michael V. Lombardo
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2Laboratory for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Italian Institute of Technology, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @ University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
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Meng-Chuan Lai
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
3Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and The Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
4Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
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Bonnie Auyeung
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
5Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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Sarah K. Crockford
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
6Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge
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Julia Deakin
7Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
8Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
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Sentil Soubramanian
9South West London and St. George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK
10Liaison Psychiatry Service, St Helier Hospital, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Surrey, UK
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Akeem Sule
11Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Simon Baron-Cohen
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Richard A. I. Bethlehem
1Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
7Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Abstract

Oxytocin administration, which may be of therapeutic value for social disabilities, likely influences endogenous levels of other socially-relevant hormones. However, to date, the effects of oxytocin administration on endogenous hormones have only been examined in typical males. The need to consider multi-hormone interactions is particularly warranted in oxytocin trials for autism due to evidence of irregularities in both oxytocin and sex steroid systems. Here, as part of a larger trial with a double-blind cross-over design, we assessed salivary testosterone and oestradiol levels in 16 autistic and 29 typical women before and after intranasal administration of 24IU oxytocin or placebo. Distinct patterns of change in testosterone and oestradiol across time were observed between groups, with autistic women showing increases in both hormones 90 min post-administration and typical women showing small decreases (mean %change oestradiol: +12% Autism, −10% Typical, 95%CI of difference: 5.0–39.4%, p=0.01; mean %change testosterone: +8% Autism, −14% Typical, 95%CI of difference: 7.8–35.6%, p=0.002). Under the oxytocin condition, the group difference in %change testosterone was amplified (+14.4% Autism, −15.2% Typical, p=0.018). Although baseline hormone levels did not differ between groups, greater baseline oestradiol relative to testosterone was negatively correlated with autistic-like traits (r= −0.36, p=0.019) and positively correlated (r=0.35, p=0.02) with self-reported empathy in the overall sample. These results provide further evidence that oxytocin influences endogenous testosterone, with autistic women showing increases similar to previous reports in typical men. These findings may help to identify autistic people expected to benefit most from interventions involving oxytocin.

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Posted June 21, 2019.
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Salivary sex hormone levels following oxytocin administration in autistic and typical women
Tanya L. Procyshyn, Michael V. Lombardo, Meng-Chuan Lai, Bonnie Auyeung, Sarah K. Crockford, Julia Deakin, Sentil Soubramanian, Akeem Sule, Simon Baron-Cohen, Richard A. I. Bethlehem
bioRxiv 679282; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/679282
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Salivary sex hormone levels following oxytocin administration in autistic and typical women
Tanya L. Procyshyn, Michael V. Lombardo, Meng-Chuan Lai, Bonnie Auyeung, Sarah K. Crockford, Julia Deakin, Sentil Soubramanian, Akeem Sule, Simon Baron-Cohen, Richard A. I. Bethlehem
bioRxiv 679282; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/679282

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