The focus of the current project is to advance our understanding of the effects of oxytocin
(OT) on components of social cognition in schizophrenia (SCZ). Despite the rapid increase in
our understanding of the role of OT in rodent models of social behavior and an explosion of
interest in the prosocial effects of OT in healthy controls, little work has been done to
dissect the potential effects of OT on SCZ subjects with social deficits. Social deficits are
a crucial aspect of the functional impairments that limit the rehabilitation of patients with
SCZ. In particular, SCZ patients with enduring negative symptoms (deficit syndrome,
Kirkpatrick et al. 1989) have prominent social deficits as a core feature of this subtype of
the illness. Our currently available medications do very little to improve these social
deficits. Hence it is of utmost public health importance to address the knowledge gap
regarding the potential of OT to improve social function in this illness. Intact social
function depends on the competent functioning of several cognitive domains that subserve
perception of social cues and the generation of motivated social behavior. We propose to
conduct a pharmacological challenge study of OT vs. placebo administration to study the
effects of OT on specific components of social cognition in male deficit syndrome SCZ
subjects.
Primary Hypothesis: Intranasal OT will improve social cognition in subjects with deficit
syndrome SCZ.