Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 241, 30 July 2016, Pages 207-220
Psychiatry Research

Peripheral oxytocin and vasopressin: Biomarkers of psychiatric disorders? A comprehensive systematic review and preliminary meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.04.117Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Evidence for oxytocin and vasopressin as biomarkers in psychiatry is heterogeneous.

  • Commercially available immunoassays are scarcely validated and standardized.

  • The relationship between peripheral levels and central activity is questionable.

Abstract

A large array of studies have investigated peripheral oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (ADH) as potential biomarkers of psychiatric disorders, with highly conflicting and heterogenous findings. We searched Web of KnowledgeSM and Scopus® for English original articles investigating OT and/or ADH levels in different biological fluids (plasma/serum, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid) across several psychiatric disorders. Sixty-four studies were included. We conducted 19 preliminary meta-analyses addressing OT alterations in plasma/serum, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid of 7 psychiatric disorders and ADH alterations in plasma/serum, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid of 6 psychiatric disorders compared to controls. Hedge's g was used as effect size measure, together with heterogeneity analyses, test of publication biases and quality control. None of them (except serum OT in anorexia nervosa) revealed significant differences. There is no convincing evidence that peripheral ADH or OT might be reliable biomarkers in psychiatric disorders. However, the lack of significant results was associated with high methodological heterogeneity, low quality of the studies, small sample size, and scarce reliability of the methods used in previous studies, which need to be validated and standardized.

Keywords

Psychosis
Autism spectrum disorder
Bipolar disorder
Major depressive disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Anorexia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa

Cited by (0)

1

Joint first authors.