A 20 second hug is said to release the love drug Oxytocin that bonds humans at a chemical level. Now Oxytocin is being studied as a potentially useful treatment in managing the symptoms of autism. From the wonderfully named site 'Hug the Monkey':"Nastech, the biotech company that has proprietary technology for intranasal drug delivery, plans to launch phase 2 clinical trials of a synthetic oxytocin treatment for autism within 12 months.The article however goes on to warn that increasing levels of another neuropeptide Vasopressin, may also be linked to the management of autism. I have some personal experience of nasally inhaled Vasopressin which I tried in the early 1990s. From my recollections it considerably sharpened my mind up. I can't prove scientifically that it improved my ability to socialise, but I looking back I did use Vasopressin at a particularly outgoing time in my life.
CEO Steven Quay said, "We think current the scientific evidence provides useful insights: Autistic children have lower levels of oxytocin than normal children. In theory, we may be able to overcome this deficit through a nasal spray that uses our tight junction technology."
Another report at Brainethics titled 'Oxytocin is the window to the soul' links two studies on Oxytocin's ability to create feelings of trust and the ability to read people more accurately:
"In a study published in Nature Ernst Fehr and his group demonstrated that injecting people with a spray of oxytocin increases trust. Now, in a pretty remarkable new study published in Biological Psychiatry, German researchers show that injecting subjects with a whiff of oxytocin will also improve be ability to infer, based just on eye cues, what a person is thinking about."Maybe we already have solutions to managing the rising 'autism epidemic' and helping Blokes understand Girls. Some very interesting studies have been conducted by Simon Baron-Cohen, University of Cambridge Autism researcher and cousin to Ali G & Borat. Another joint study between the Universities of Rostoch & Zurich has shown that Oxytocin helps men more effectively mind-read faces for cues of emotion.
If the theory is correct that autism is caused by having an overly 'male' brain, then an Oxytocin inhaler may be a gentle way of dealing with the symptoms. I'd happily have a nasal squirt of empathy juice before having to deal with face to face meetings. As I work online most of the time I'd hardly ever need to use it.
WARNING: The prescription drug OxyContin in pill form is NOT the same thing as this proposed nasal spray. So don't encourage those drugs spammers by buying it on the internet, as you'll be buying addictive painkiller instead. Seek advice from a registered professional.
Image from: kelly.kell.sblog.cz/
For more on Oxytocin check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin
