At a think tank meeting about autism several years ago, molecular geneticist Simon Gregory spoke with mainstream and nonconventional doctors about oxytocin, the so-called “love hormone” that some doctors were using to treat symptoms of social disconnection in children with autism.
Asking for a show of hands, Gregory was stunned to see that about a fifth of the attendees were supplying oxytocin nasal sprays to their young patients. Yet safety data were scanty, and “it was pretty evident there wasn’t any standard of care for autism,” Gregory says. “Some people were using once a day, others twice. There was no metric of successful treatment. It’s the Wild West.”
Until recently, most studies examining oxytocin treatment for autism have used small sample sizes and involved only one or two hits of the hormone. But for some parents of children on the autism spectrum, the lure of a magic mist that promises social connection, eye contact and emotional engagement is hard to resist. Although the FDA has not approved the use of oxytocin to treat autism, it is available by prescription from compounding pharmacies, and for $49.95, anyone can order a two-month supply of the oxytocin spray Liquid Trust over the Internet without a prescription.
Imagine you are Gregory. On the one hand, you see a mass migration to a trendy but unproven drug. On the other hand, some new studies lend credence to claims of oxytocin’s potential — albeit with important caveats. What do you do? Apply for grants, fast. Gregory, who directs Duke University’s Bioinformatics Workshop, is now one of a handful of scientists scrambling to chase a genie that has already left the bottle.
