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First experiences with neuropsychological effects of oxytocin administration in childhood-onset craniopharyngioma

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Abstract

Purpose

The hypothalamic hormone oxytocin plays a major role in regulation of behavior and body composition. Quality of survival is frequently impaired in childhood craniopharyngioma patients due to sequelae such as behavioral deficits and severe obesity caused by tumor or treatment-related hypothalamic lesions.

Methods

In our pilot cross-sectional study, we analyzed emotion recognition abilities and oxytocin concentrations in saliva and urine before and after single nasal administration of 24 IU oxytocin in 10 craniopharyngioma patients. Four craniopharyngioma presented with grade I lesions (limited to anterior hypothalamic areas) and 6 craniopharyngioma with grade II lesions (involving mammillary bodies and posterior hypothalamic areas). Emotional tasks were assessed before and after administration of oxytocin using the Geneva multimodal emotion portrayals corpus and the Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire.

Results

All patients presented with detectable levels of oxytocin before administration. Nasal administration of oxytocin was well-tolerated and resulted in increased oxytocin concentrations in saliva and urine. After oxytocin administration, craniopharyngioma patients with postsurgical lesions limited to the anterior hypothalamus area showed improvements in emotional identifications compared to craniopharyngioma patients with lesions of anterior and posterior hypothalamic areas. Focusing on correct assignments to positive and negative emotion categories, craniopharyngioma patients improved assignment to negative emotions.

Conclusions

Oxytocin might have positive effects on emotion perception in craniopharyngioma patients with specific lesions of the anterior hypothalamic area. Further studies on larger cohorts are warranted.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by a grant (Forschungspool) of the European Medical School, Oldenburg, Germany, and a grant (DKS2014.13) of the German Childhood Cancer Foundation, Bonn, Germany. H. Müller is supported by the German Childhood Cancer Foundation, Bonn, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology / Oncology, Klinikum Oldenburg AöR, Medical Campus University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, 26133, Germany

    Anika Hoffmann, Kristin Lohle, Julia Reichel & Hermann L. Müller

  2. Biological Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, 26129, Germany

    Jale Özyurt & Christiane M. Thiel

  3. Research Center Neurosensory Science and Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all”, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, 26129, Germany

    Christiane M. Thiel

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  1. Anika Hoffmann
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Correspondence to Hermann L. Müller.

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All procedures performed in our study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the local standing committee on ethical practice as an individual medical treatment in ten cases and written patient consent was obtained in all cases.

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Hoffmann, A., Özyurt, J., Lohle, K. et al. First experiences with neuropsychological effects of oxytocin administration in childhood-onset craniopharyngioma. Endocrine 56, 175–185 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-017-1257-x

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