Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
October 4, 2013
Cédric M. Hysek, Yasmin Schmid, Linda D. Simmler et al.
356 citations
MDMA (ecstasy) enhances emotional empathy and prosocial behavior in men but impairs recognition of negative emotions like fear, anger, and sadness, especially in women. In a placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover trial with 32 healthy volunteers, MDMA increased explicit and implicit emotional empathy on the Multifaceted Empathy Test and boosted prosocial choices on the Social Value Orientation test in men. It did not affect cognitive empathy but worsened identification of negative facial expressions on the Face Emotion Recognition Task, particularly in women. MDMA also raised plasma cortisol, prolactin, and oxytocin levels, markers linked to social behavior. These effects may explain MDMA's recreational sociability and its potential therapeutic use in psychotherapy for social dysfunction or PTSD.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
July 17, 2015
Oliver G. Bosch, Christoph Eisenegger, Jürg Gertsch et al.
42 citations
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a GHB-/GABAB-receptor agonist, produces euphoric, disinhibiting, and vitality-enhancing effects in healthy men. In a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial with 16 males, a single 20 mg/kg dose increased charitable donations and prosocial money distributions among participants who initially showed low prosociality. However, GHB did not alter emotion recognition, empathy, theory-of-mind, or basic cognitive functions. The drug raised plasma progesterone levels but left oxytocin, testosterone, cortisol, aldosterone, DHEA, and ACTH unchanged. These findings suggest that GHB's mood and prosocial effects may involve GHB-/GABAB-receptors and progesterone rather than typical social hormones like oxytocin or testosterone.
Journal of the Endocrine Society
October 1, 2023
Cihan Atila, Friederike Holze, Rakithan Murugesu et al.
Patients with arginine vasopressin deficiency (central diabetes insipidus) show heightened anxiety, alexithymia, and depressed mood at baseline compared with healthy controls. When given a single 100 mg oral dose of MDMA, patients had only a minimal oxytocin increase of 66 pg/ml, whereas healthy controls showed an increase of 658 pg/ml—a 15.8-fold difference. This blunted oxytocin response was accompanied by reduced subjective effects including trust, happiness, openness, and fear reduction. The findings suggest that an oxytocin deficiency may underlie the psychological symptoms in these patients, establishing oxytocin deficiency as a potential hypothalamic-pituitary entity.