Intranasal Oxytocin in Antiosocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy

Investigating the Effect of Oxytocin and the Neurochemistry of Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy Using Neuroimaging

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT05383300

Acronym

OXYASP

Enrollment

Registered

2022-05-20

Start date

2017-05-01

Completion date

2021-12-01

Last updated

2022-05-20

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Keywords

Oxytocin; Psychopathy; Violent Offenders; Social Processing

Brief summary

A pharmacoimaging study of oxytcoin in antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy

Detailed description

Using a double-blinded, placebo controlled design, we explored similarities and differences in i) an important component of empathic processing (neural response to facial emotional expressions) and ii) decision-making in violent men with ASPD+/-Psychopathy, compared to healthy non-offenders (NO; n= 21 across studies), with placebo and after acute application of intranasal oxytocin, using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Interventions

DRUGOxytocin nasal spray

Intranasal spray containing 40 IU of oxytocin

OTHERPlacebo spray

Application of inert placebo, identical in odor, color, and droplet size except for absence of oxytocin

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

CROSSOVER

Primary purpose

OTHER

Masking

TRIPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator)

Masking description

Double-blinded- participant and investigator.

Intervention model description

Double-binded placebo-controlled crossover trial

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

MALE

Age

18 Years to 60 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Male * Aged 18-60 * IQ greater than 70 as defined by the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II). Violent offenders: Offenders with convictions for violent crimes (murder, rape, attempted murder, grievous and actual bodily harm) who met DSM-5 criteria for antisocial personality disorder (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Personality Disorders (SCID-5 PD) Psychopathy or non-psychopathy subgroup based on Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R; (Hare, 2003))- score of 25 as the threshold for psychopathy in this English population. Healthy non-offenders: Non-offenders with no personality disorder

Exclusion criteria

* history of major mental disorders (bipolar 1, bipolar 2, major depression or psychotic disorders) * self-reported neurological disorders * head injury resulting in loss of consciousness for 1 hour or longer * severe visual or hearing impairments * contraindications to MRI

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Within-group effect of oxytocin on nerual modulation of fear	10 minutes	Differences in responsivity to morphed faces on FMRI in oxytocin vs fear condition- clusterwise analysis using AFNI (effect size is beta values)

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Baseline neural modulation of morphed fearful faces	10 minutes	Response to morphred faces on FMRI in placebo condition- clusterwise analysis using AFNI (effect size is beta values)

Countries

United Kingdom

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026