Love hormone could help children with autism

Young children with autism could be helped by the ‘love hormone’ that builds bonds between mothers and babies, new research has found.

A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that there is rapid improvement in oxytocin production following parent-child play, indicating that attachment-based therapies could help children with autism.

Because little is known about oxytocin levels in young children, researcher Ruth Feldman, of the Department of Psychology and the Gonda Brain Sciences Center, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, examined levels of oxytocin in pre-schoolers to see if production of the hormone could be enhanced by parent-child social contact.

She enlisted 8 families, including mothers, fathers, and their pre-school-aged child, and split them into 2 groups – 1 included 40 pre-schoolers diagnosed with autism and their parents, while the other had 40 pre-schoolers with no known neuro-developmental or psychiatric diagnoses, and their parents.

The children were seen 3 times by researchers – once at their nursery and twice at home. Two identical home visits were conducted – once with the mother and once with the father – within the same month, with each visit lasting about 2 hours.

Each visit included 45 minutes of parent-child contact, which involved the parent picking up the child to cuddle them, and playing games with puppets and toys.

During each home visit 4 saliva samples were collected from each parent and child, to measure levels of oxytocin. This was done before, during, at the end of, and after the parent-contact period.

Children diagnosed with autism were found to have lower levels of oxytocin compared to those who did not. Levels of oxytocin in pre-schoolers with autism were also found to have changed during the visit.

After 20 minutes of parent-child play, the levels of oxytocin in those with autism increased and remained high during the period of social contact but 15 minutes after contact ended, autistic children saw their oxytocin levels drop to their normal levels.

“Our study shows that, as with adults with autism, young children with autism have low levels of oxytocin,” said Feldman. “But the quick improvement in oxytocin production following parent-child play indicates that these sorts of attachment based therapies could help children with autism and encourage their entry into the social world.”

Feldman R, Golan O et al. Parent-child interaction and oxytocin production in pre-schoolers with autism spectrum disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry