Using Nasal Spray to Treat Autism?

Autism is one of those disorders that is clouded with mystery. We have no one solid cause and no exact beneficial treatment for it. It all feels like a big game of “guinea pig” once you start down the road to trying to find the correct medication and therapy. Even finding the correct doctor is a challenge. There are so few out there that know what they are talking about. As a mother of a teenager with Autism my journey on this path started around 12 years ago, when my son was first diagnosed.

Since that day we have been through so many medications it’s easier to tell a doctor what he hasn’t tried than to sit down and try to list the medications he has. Luckily in the last few years we have found the right combination of medications and therapies to work for him. Unfortunately, due to our insurance company refusing to allow him to continue that treatment once we moved states we have had to since find one that works almost as well. Even though he is being treated that doesn’t mean my journey ends here. It is just beginning.

It has occurred to me that I am about to jump head first into a world I do not know. The world of having an Autistic ADULT son. I feel like my research is starting all over, mostly because it is. While looking into pre-voke rehab services for my son I remembered years ago, when writing Painting the Spectrum Gold, I stumbled across a study that suggested a new treatment for adults with Autism that potentially would work for children with Autism as well. I also wrote about this in an article for emaxhealth.com 4 years ago. If you are interested in that article click here.

The initial trial study of interest occurred at the Institute of Cognitive Science, Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, Lyon, France. It was published in PNAS in 2010. During said study 13 adult volunteers with Asperger’s were given Oxytocin to inhale. An additional group of volunteers were given a placebo to inhale. In the end it was found that Oxytocin Nasal Spray is beneficial in the treatment of Asperger’s in adults with the diagnoses. The study claims that the volunteers had better response time and ability to understand in a simulated ball toss. In addition, the volunteers given the Oxytocin Nasal Spray were able to increase the amount of time they could focus their eyes, or “zone out,” into a picture.

Getting results on oxytocin treatments for autism in America was a step by step process that started with Autism Speaks. Much like the abovementioned study, the first step to getting a trial done in America started overseas. The initial study was conducted by Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2008. Autism Speaks gave a total grant of nearly $380,000 to make this study happen. The Scientist were charged with researching the effects of oxytocin levels in a mother prior to birth and then the use of synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin) on the infants and rate the overall correlation.

Directly after the Hebrew University study, Autism Speaks gave the University of North Carolina $119,000 to begin a trial on the treatment of autism with Oxytocin Nasal Spray. Since then the United States Government has gotten in on the research. They gave $12.6 million dollars to begin the SOARS-B study in 2013.

The official name of the study is Study of Oxytocin in Autism to improve Reciprocal Social Behaviors. SOARS-B is currently following 300 autistic children; half of which are being given oxytocin and half a placebo. This is to happen for ½ the life of the study. The second ½ of the study all the children are given the Oxytocin Treatment. The results of this study are still unknown, as the study is still being done. There are several universities in on this study.

Universities participating in the study are:

• The University of North Carolina ASPIRE program, in Chapel Hill and Durham• The Lurie Center for Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• Seaver Autism Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
• Seattle Children’s Research Institute
• The Vanderbilt Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Nashville.

If you are wondering how all of this ties together, I am about to tell you. As I stated in the previous article I wrote. In 2012 a Stanford University study proved to be extremely valuable. "In this study they were able to make a correlation between Oxytocin and Serotonin levels in the brain. They were also able to effectively show that oxytocin influences the levels of serotonin seen. That oxytocin actually acts much like an antidepressant does. It increased amounts of serotonin present in the brain. The Stanford team was also able to show that oxytocin increased serotonin levels specifically in the brain’s nucleus accumbens. This led them to the conclusion that the relations between oxytocin and serotonin could be fundamental in making social interactions enjoyable for an autistic individual."

Additionally, when lead researcher of the Stanford study, Gül Dölen, was questioned it was stated that "there are at least 14 different subtypes of serotonin receptor [in the brain]." The researcher went further to say that, "We've identified one as being important for social reward. Drugs that selectively act on this receptor aren't clinically available. But our study may encourage researchers to start looking at drugs that target it for the treatment of disorders such as autism." 

A comment given when Angela Sirigu (lead researcher of the French study I mentioned above), was told of the findings of the Standford study sort of puts it all together for you. She replied by saying that the findings were "interesting since they confirm our previous results obtained on adult Asperger patients we published in PNAS in 2010, and they also show that therapeutic potential of oxytocin can also be extended to children."

I previously wrote that "scientist who support the Oxytocin claims say that using this hormone on our children will increase their ability to recognize emotions in others. That it helps with repetitive behaviors, social memory and it, overall, helps their whole emotional process. The claim is that these responses are seen in Autistic children as well as in Schizophrenic patients, and patients with Social Anxiety Disorder; furthermore, sometimes these positive results are seen within 3 weeks of treatment. These scientist and doctors are so confident that they say Oxytocin Nasal Spray Treatment addresses the “core symptoms’ of Autism."

Doctors that champion for this treatment claim that it

-increases ability to recognize the emotions of others

-increases social memory

-lowers repetitive behaviors and scripting

-lessens social anxiety

My emaxhealth article pointed out the down sides of this treatment as well.

I wrote, "Now before you run out to your child’s doctor’s office begging for this ‘magic bullet’ there are a few things you should know. The University of New South Wales researchers did their own research study in 2013 using 38 boys ages 7-16 years. They conducted their study much like the pilot AutismSpeaks study. At the end of the study they concluded that there were no improvements in emotional recognition, social interaction skills, repetitive behaviors, or in general behavior with the use of the nasal spray. Also, as with most medicines, you must remember that there are side effects that come along with the use of Oxytocin Nasal Spray."

Side Effects of Oxytocin Nasal Spray Treatment

-runny nose

-irritation of the inside of the nose

-excessive eye watering

-mental disorders with loss of normal personality and reality

-seizures

-bleeding not related to a menstrual period

-uterine contractions

Given those side effects, this is a treatment route that needs more research before being used widespread. Understand that most of the pharmaceutical treatments we currently have for autism have many of the same side effect. Nevertheless, this idea is interesting. The potential of this treatment helping adults and children who fall on the Autism Spectrum is actually just plain exhilarating.

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Sources:

http://autismcenter.duke.edu/research/study-oxytocin-autism-reciprocal-social-behaviors-soars-b
https://www.emaxhealth.com/12577/oxytocin-nasal-spray-treatment-autism-work
https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/grants/effect-oxytocin-receptor-inhibitor-atosiban-during-perinatal-period-and-prevalence-au
https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/grants/8-week-placebo-controlled-trial-oxytocin-treatment-children-autism
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/764903
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science/no-oxytocin-benefit-autism
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-63499/oxytocin-nasal/details/list-sideeffects