The Nasal Red Bull for Emotions (Not Cocaine)
Have problems fitting in? Too apathetic? Maybe you need a kick start. Get that compassion flowing and fit into those awkward social situations. First, you’ll need a shot of a new hormone called Oxytocin. It’s your golden ticket into the cool group.
A study by Hollander and Bartz suggests that the drugs fist use could be on autistic patients. Their deficiency suggests that a boost in the naturally occurring hormone may help them bond socially. Beyond the world of autism the drug could have a huge effect on people with obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobias. Other effects include eliminating repetitive behaviors and an increased connection to external emotion.
Pregnant women experience a rush of Oxytocin when it produces contractions and stimulates milk production. Links have previously been made to the hormone creating a bond between parent and child. It’s literally a social bonding agent, creating a need to be connected to the outside world.
If you’re looking for a prescription tomorrow you may need to hold off until the hormone has been properly developed into a drug. Yet, after it’s in production we may look back on the days of Prozac and laugh at its ineffectiveness. Get prepared to get emotional.
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Nickie said
am February 15 2008 @ 12:07 pm
There is something about those kinds of drugs that scares me— I mean what has happened to people that makes so many of us have to take drugs just to feel normal? I guess it will at least help people with Autism.
Jerad Kaliher said
am February 16 2008 @ 11:10 pm
@Nickie, humans in general are not a very well adjusted group of animals. Especially when you consider that just a few short years ago we weren’t living in complicated urban societies. I think that drugs like these are the way to bridge a bit of the gap that may eventually develop evolutionarily.
SomeOne said
am February 22 2008 @ 8:50 am
Oxytocin is not a “new” hormone. It occurs naturally in our brains, and has been manufactured synthetically as Pitocin and Syntocinon for some time. It may be that there are new uses for it (as noted, it is primarily used to induce labor) as some studies suggest, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. As we’re currently seeing in professional sports, the indiscriminate use of hormones is often counter-productive.
[Blank] said
am February 22 2008 @ 3:16 pm
People with Autism do not need a drug to “treat” them. Chemical supplements are not the answer to everything. Why is it so wrong for them to be different?