Oxytocin/Dopamine

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I'm not sure how prevalent it actually is, but I get the impression that obsessive masturbation is at least common in sufferers of both schizotypy and ASD. The main effect of orgasm is to release oxytocin into the system, an important social hormone. This hormone also has the effect of lowering activity in the amygdala, which interests me a great deal because some of the most upsetting problems tied to autism arise from heightened activity in this region. What is fascinating is that oxytocin is derived from dopamine, excesses of which can result in paranoia, hallucinations and magical thinking. It actually occurred to me very rapidly, but has anyone considered the possibility that many autists and schizotypes just have trouble converting dopamine into oxytocin? Raising one's oxytocin levels should have the effect of heightening one's comfort around people and building social bonds, so perhaps a poverty in one's ability to manufacture it under normal circumstances would have the opposite effect. This may be why some of us can't have casein; endogenous opioids, which act via the kappa receptors, have the effect of inhibiting the release of oxytocin. Furthermore, it's possible that orgasm, in some people, has the effect of jump-starting the system into releasing more oxytocin, thus draining from one's supply of dopamine (this would those of us who w*k all night. You know who you are).

Although this sounds a little odd, dopamine does play a key role in creativity and overall intelligence, which schizotypes and Aspergians, respectively, are legendary for. I think that it would be quite feasible to treat both disorders (and possibly bipolar disorder, cyclothymia, etc.) using a long-acting oxytocin agonist. This SHOULD have the effect of heightening our social ambulation while allowing us to maintain our intellectual superiority. This would put us one step closer to global domination, so it's a definite win if all of this holds up. Anyone, please, throw facts and logic at this before I get over-excited about it.

if it was that simple, you would think people would have thought of it before... and they probably had and it led to nothing...

Not sure what there relationship is in neurochemistry but oxytocin is not derived from dopamine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin

Dopamine is manufactured from tyrosine. I doubt the trival amount contain in super potent oxytocin would supply any useful amount of tyrosine for dopamine production either.

Strange. I think that I got the relationship wrong, and thank you for correcting me there. Dopamine stimulates the production of the hormone oxytocin, rather than being converted into it. That was entirely my foolishness, and I apologize. I was rash.

Question: is it possible that dopamine levels would be higher if they weren't performing this task? There has to be some reason for the higher dopamine levels and negative effects of endogenous opioids in autists and schizotypes.

All genius is simple in retrospective. And apparently some claim-jumping Dutchman beat me to it.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200611 ... _sys.shtml

I'll find him, and I'll stuff a wooden shoe up his butt. Still, I'd like to see how this theory plays out.

A long-acting oxytocin agonist carbetocin is being studied(for autism, etc).

http://www.nastech.com/nastech/carbetocin

It would be in the form a nasal spray though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbetocin

One of the biggest puzzlers that I am hoping to solve while I progress in my new Psychology major is the neurological effects of Autism. Through some studies of the brain, I have learned that Autism doesn't just affect one part of the brain, but many parts. This idea about the lack of oxytocin is a MAJOR clue for me. I have questions about Autism that still remain unanswered.

Thanks, Machine. I didn't realize that there was already a land rush for the use of oxytocin as a treatment. Furthermore, I'm reading some articles that make pointed criticisms of the therapeutic use of this hormone. I think now that it would be more helpful to focus on natural methods of inducing the release of oxytocin in the central nervous system until a root cause has been found. It's possible that touch therapy for children affected with autism might be useful. Do you think it's possible that the public uproar over pedophilia could be a sociological cause? It might be making some parents and caretakers more averse to physically interacting with their kids as they should. A lot of the natural interaction between parent and child is psychologically connected to sexuality. This includes tickling, stroking, petting, cuddling, etcetera; however, psychologically healthy adults normally stop short of wrongdoing, possibly through some mechanism that I haven't heard of yet. Although I wouldn't overlook other environmental causes, this is an interesting possibility if nothing else.

I hate land pharmacological land rushes. They result in such stupid things. I HATE THEM!

I never tried oxytocin before.

I always caution myself on things as a preliminarily, though... But I have different things in mind for myself too.

What I keep in mind when I research stuff is: I never liked the psychiatric systems authority over others or that others let them have. So I keep the ideal of having authority over my own incentives.

What I have came up with so far when I study things pertain to a many number of things that I speculate on for myself or possibly others - I assume to some degree that the human bodies' systems were meant to be variable:

When we eat certain foods, we consume different levels of vitamins etc... (this supports part of this idea)

Amino acids(depending on what it is) have low toxicity or no toxicity or depending on how at extremed in variable its levels are. And many things that look like a vitamin or amino acid also can be assumed to adapt to the systems in the body much better than man-made substances(I also have some evidence of this).

There is a wide-range of pharmacological activity depending on the amino-acid just like a neurotransmitter in itself as many of them actually are neurotransmitters. Therefore, I conclude that if some amino-acid substances function as neurotransmitters or some influence in unknown mechanisms then the brain seems to have many other opportunities to be modified to some extent. This is why I don't despise of things like melatonin or taurine because they seem so natural. So far, I think that taking things from this point of veiw is to my personal satisfactory ideal that I keep for myself.

Is this part true? Does orgasm release oxytocin into the system? Is this why I can finally get some sleep, after?

Merle

Yes, this is true.

This article concerning children from Russian and Romanian orphanages and their oxytocin and vasopressin levels may be of interest

Article

so, I don't have to bother with all that, I can just take oxytocin?

ARE YOU BENT?? Okay, just kidding. Yeah, it should be possible to take care of that little problem by just taking a sniff of oxytocin. However, having given this issue second thoughts, I wouldn't advise using oxytocin for anything other than improving sleeping habits until more is known about how it works. It's probable that, in normal social interaction, oxytocin is released and inhibited in a specific rhythm that cannot be duplicated with a spray. If anything, I'd try using a specific opioid antagonist to relieve oxytocin inhibition in order to facilitate learning to use the stuff correctly, and I'm also interested in the possibility of using darkly tinted glasses in order to lower stress levels because it's known that stress also has the effect of inhibiting the release of oxytocin.

If you followed my oxytocin thread you can see some of my thoughts on it. Anyway I have tried the nasal spray. The most critical flaw it has is a major short half-life of say 5 minutes. I plan to do more testing of it in the future were I repeatedly take doses in a difficult social situation.

wow, I will stick with my Sybian, then!