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Oxytocin nasal spray in fibromyalgic patients

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A Letter to the Editor - Food for Thought to this article was published on 30 October 2014

A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 18 June 2014

Abstract

Fibromyalgia is a pain disorder associated with frequent comorbid mood, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Despite the frequent use of a complex, poly-drug pharmacotherapy, treatment for fibromyalgia is of limited efficacy. Oxytocin has been reported to reduce the severity of pain, anxiety, and depression, and improve the quality of sleep, suggesting that it may be useful to treat fibromyalgia. To evaluate this hypothesis, 14 women affected by fibromyalgia and comorbid disorders, assuming a complex pharmacotherapy, were enrolled in a double-blind, crossover, randomized trial to receive oxytocin and placebo nasal spray daily for 3 weeks for each treatment. Order of treatment (placebo–oxytocin or oxytocin–placebo) was randomly assigned. Patients were visited once a week. At each visit, the following instruments were administered: an adverse drug reaction record card, Visual Analog Scale of Pain Intensity, Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, and SF-12. Women self-registered painkiller assumption, pain severity, and quality of sleep in a diary. Unlikely, oxytocin nasal spray (80 IU a day) did not induce positive therapeutic effects but resulted to be safe, devoid of toxicity, and easy to handle.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express gratitude to Defiante/Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite S.p.A. for supplying oxytocin and placebo nasal spray. The authors express also sincere gratitude to Sandra Bargone, Paolo Chillotti, Valentina Collu, Marinella Corona, Maria Francesca Gessa, and Valentina Giglio, the nurse staff of the Pain Therapy Unit of the “A. Businco” Hospital, ASL 8, Cagliari, Italy, for their active and valid contributions, to Dr. Gisella Carrucciu for pharmaceutical assistance, and to Mrs. Anne Farmer for language editing of the manuscript.

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The authors have no financial or non-financial conflict of interest to declare.

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Correspondence to R. Agabio.

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S. Mameli and G. M. Pisanu have equally contributed to this work.

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Mameli, S., Pisanu, G.M., Sardo, S. et al. Oxytocin nasal spray in fibromyalgic patients. Rheumatol Int 34, 1047–1052 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-014-2953-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-014-2953-y

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