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Intranasal and Intravenous Oxytocin for Analgesia to Noxious Heat Pain
Sponsor: Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Summary
The goal of this research study is to find out how well oxytocin works to reduce pain. Oxytocin will be given intravenously (IV) and as a nasal spray. The study team also hopes to find out if the participants age, weight, or sex effects how well the study drug works. Participants will be exposed to a heater on the skin at a training visit and rate how much pain different temperatures cause. On two separate visits, participants will use a nasal spray and get an IV infusion. After the IV and nasal spray, participants will rate the pain of the same skin heating temperature at various time points for 4 hours.
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 75 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
24
Start Date
2025-11-05
Completion Date
2026-06-20
Last Updated
2026-03-30
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
Intravenous oxytocin
Oxytocin, 10 International Units (IU) will be administered by IV infusion over 30 minutes and, 30 minutes later, a second 10 IU will be administered over 30 min, for a total dose of 20 IU. The first infusion will be at a rate of 0.125 IU/min for the first 5 min, then at 0.375 IU/min for the remaining 25 min. The second 30-min infusion will be at a fixed rate of 0.333 IU/min.
Intravenous placebo
Saline will be administered as two 30-min IV infusions separated by 30-min, using the same volume of infusion solution and rates of administration as in the intravenous oxytocin intervention.
Intranasal oxytocin
Oxytocin will be self-administered at the time the first IV infusion begins as a single 0.1 mL spray (12 IU) in each nostril followed in 5 min by another spray in each nostril. The total dose of oxytocin is 48 IU.
Intranasal placebo
Placebo (solution containing the excipients in the oxytocin solution but without oxytocin) will be self-administered at the time the first IV infusion begins as a single 0.1 mL spray in each nostril followed in 5 min by another spray in each nostril.
Locations (1)
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States