Session Information
Date: Monday, September 23, 2019
Session Title: Functional (Psychogenic) Movement Disorders
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Les Muses Terrace, Level 3
Objective: Aim of this case series was to assess the effect of a single dose of intranasal oxytocin in a sample of patients with FMS on the motor symptoms themselves and on some psychological variables, such as alexithymia, interoceptive awareness, anxiety and depression.
Background: Human studies have confirmed oxytocin’s role as a “social hormone”, mediating many social behaviours such as emotion understanding and recognition or attention to socially relevant information of human face. In the last few years several studies have shown that intranasal administration of oxytocin decreases cortisol release and anxiety in response to social stress, reduces amygdala activity to fearful or threatening visual images or emotional faces, increases trust behaviour and enhances the recognition of emotion.
Method: Eight patients affected by FMS were recruited. They have been instructed to self-administer the spray. All patients underwent the following assessment prior (T0) and immediately after (T1) the oxytocin administration: PMD scale, assessment of depression, anxiety, alexithymia and interoceptive awareness. Self-assessment of outcome was recorded at T1 and T2 (five days after the session).
Results: After the session 87.5% patients rated their general feeling of well-being such as “better” or “much better” on the CGI and 37.5% rated their main symptoms as “better” or “much better” on the IPS. The improvement in the well-being reported by patients remained also at T2. After the oxytocin administration, patients had significantly lower scores at HAM-D, HAM-A and TAS-20. Good outcome was predicted by improvement in the TAS-20.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that a single intranasal administration of oxytocin can provide an improvement in general feeling of well-being, anxiety, depressive symptoms and alexithymic features in the majority of patients with FMS.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
B. Demartini, D. Goeta, D. Di Benedetto, A. Casiraghi, D. Mazza, A. Priori, O. Gambini. The effect of intranasal oxytocin in patients with functional motor symptoms: an open label case series [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2019; 34 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effect-of-intranasal-oxytocin-in-patients-with-functional-motor-symptoms-an-open-label-case-series/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2019 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effect-of-intranasal-oxytocin-in-patients-with-functional-motor-symptoms-an-open-label-case-series/