Oxytocin levels and sex differences in autism spectrum disorder with severe intellectual disabilities

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 273; pp. 67 - 74
• Main Authors: Aita, Chie, Mizoguchi, Yoshito, Yamamoto, Miwako, SeguchI, Yasuhisa, Yatsuga, Chiho, Nishimura, Taisuke, Sugimoto, Yoshiki, Takahashi, Daiki, Nishihara, Reiko, Ueno, Takefumi, Nakayama, Masahiro, Kuroki, Toshihide, Nabeta, Hiromi, Imamura, Yoshiomi, Monji, Akira
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.03.2019
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Autism spectrum disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder - blood; Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis; Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology; Biomarkers - blood; Challenging behaviors; Female; Humans; Intellectual Disability - blood; Intellectual Disability - diagnosis; Intellectual Disability - psychology; Male; Middle Aged; Oxytocin (OXT); Oxytocin - blood; Repetitive behavior; Severe intellectual disabilities; Severity of Illness Index; Sex Characteristics; Young Adult; Severe intellectual disabilities; ASD; Oxytocin (OXT); Challenging behaviors; OXT; DIQ; DQ; Autism spectrum disorder; Repetitive behavior
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.139

•We measured serum OXT and symptom scores in patients with intellectual disabilities.•Diagnosis of ASD and severity of intellectual disabilities did not affect serum OXT.•We found sex differences in the correlations between symptom scores and serum OXT.•OXT was presumed to be related to repetitive behaviors and nonverbal communication. There were few reports of oxytocin (OXT) concentrations of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients with severe intellectual disabilities. We measured serum OXT concentrations in 79 hospitalized patients with severe intellectual disabilities (16–60 years old, 50 males and 29 females, 54 ASD patients) and investigated the associations between serum OXT concentration, symptom scores, sex differences, and autism spectrum disorder. There were no significant effects of diagnosis, severity of intellectual disabilities, and total score of the Japanese version of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC-J), the Childhood Autism Rating Scale-Tokyo Version (CARS-TV), and the Japanese version of the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R). However, there were sex differences in the correlations between OXT concentrations and subscale scores in the ASD group. The male ASD group (n = 39) showed negative correlations between RBS-R Self-injurious and Sameness subscale scores and serum OXT concentrations. In the female ASD group(n = 15), CARS-TV Nonverbal communication subscale scores and RBS-R Compulsive subscale scores were seen to positively correlate with serum OXT concentrations. These findings suggest that OXT functions differ in males and females with severe intellectual disabilities and that OXT partly affects autism and related to some of the repetitive behaviors and nonverbal communication, in ASD patients with severe intellectual disabilities.