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Oxytocin and Aggression

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Behavioral Pharmacology of Neuropeptides: Oxytocin

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences ((CTBN,volume 35))

Abstract

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has a solid reputation as a facilitator of social interactions such as parental and pair bonding, trust, and empathy. The many results supporting a pro-social role of OT have generated the hypothesis that impairments in the endogenous OT system may lead to antisocial behavior, most notably social withdrawal or pathological aggression. If this is indeed the case, administration of exogenous OT could be the “serenic” treatment that psychiatrists have for decades been searching for.

In the present review, we list and discuss the evidence for an endogenous “hypo-oxytocinergic state” underlying aggressive and antisocial behavior, derived from both animal and human studies. We furthermore examine the reported effects of synthetic OT administration on aggression in rodents and humans.

Although the scientific findings listed in this review support, in broad lines, the link between a down-regulated or impaired OT system activity and increased aggression, the anti-aggressive effects of synthetic OT are less straightforward and require further research. The rather complex picture that emerges adds to the ongoing debate questioning the unidirectional pro-social role of OT, as well as the strength of the effects of intranasal OT administration in humans.

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Acknowledgements

The authors were financially supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement no. 602407 (FemNAT-CD, www.femnat-cd.eu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral and Molecular Neurobiology, University of Regensburg, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Trynke R. de Jong & Inga D. Neumann

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  1. Trynke R. de Jong
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  2. Inga D. Neumann
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Correspondence to Inga D. Neumann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Rene Hurlemann

  2. Schaller Research Group on Neuropeptides German Cancer Research Center, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, BW, Germany

    Valery Grinevich

  3. Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, BW, Germany

    Valery Grinevich

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de Jong, T.R., Neumann, I.D. (2017). Oxytocin and Aggression. In: Hurlemann, R., Grinevich, V. (eds) Behavioral Pharmacology of Neuropeptides: Oxytocin. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2017_13

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