Oxytocin and Arginine Vasopressin in Pain Relief
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01328561. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
The Role of Oxytocin and Arginine Vasopressin in Human Placebo Analgesia
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Background: \- Oxytocin, a substance produced mostly in the brain, plays a role in influencing social interactions and reactions to stress, and may be related to pain. Arginine vasopressin, a hormone that regulates water, sugar, and salt in the blood, influences hostile behaviors and reactions to stress, and may also be related to pain. Researchers are interested in investigating both substances and their relationship to pain in healthy volunteers. Objectives: \- To evaluate the effects of oxytocin and arginine vasopressin on pain in healthy volunteers. Eligibility: \- Healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years of age. Design: * This study involves two 2-hour testing sessions held 1 day apart. Each session includes the administration of oxytocin, arginine vasopressin, or placebo (a nonactive substance), or no drug. The drugs and the placebo will be given by a nasal spray. * At the first visit, participants will provide blood and saliva samples to measure hormone levels, and will be asked to fill out questionnaires about some psychological factors such as anxiety and empathy. Participants will then have an assessment of their sensitivity to pain, consisting of a brief electrical stimulation that lasts less than 1 second. After the pain assessment, participants will receive oxytocin, arginine vasopressin, placebo, or no drug at all, and will be monitored to provide baseline information. Participants will then have another pain sensitivity test and will complete the questionnaires again, and provide another saliva sample. * At the second visit, participants will provide another saliva sample; receive oxytocin, arginine vasopressin, placebo, or no drug at all; and have tests of pain sensitivity and a pain-relieving procedure. During the pain-relieving procedure, participants will receive brief, moderately painful electrical shocks on the back of the nondominant hand and a low-level electrical stimulation on the middle finger that counteracts or reduces the pain from the shocks. Participants will rate their pain perception at the end of each stimulation by using a visual scale ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (maximum imaginable pain). The experiment ends with a final saliva collection and completion of the psychological questionnaires.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01328561
- Recruitment status
- Terminated
- Study type
- Observational
- Phase
- Not listed
- Enrollment
- 167 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
Not listed
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 55 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Mar 16, 2011
- Primary completion
- Not listed
- Completion
- Mar 3, 2015
- Last update posted
- Jul 4, 2018
2011 – 2015
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike | Bethesda | Maryland | 20892 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01328561, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jul 4, 2018 · Synced Sep 23, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01328561 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.