Oxytocin is best known as the drug that helps induce labor, but in the last few years it has taken on a new identity: the cuddle hormone. This naturally occurring hormone seems to be associated with maintaining healthy relationships, whether that be with setting boundaries or helping to mediate emotional experiences.
In mammals oxytocin has been known to produce a variety of behaviors. For rats the hormone seems to facilitate nest building and pup retrieval. In sheep it aids in the acceptance of offspring. In prairie voles, it has been shown to be involved in the formation of adult pair-bonds. In humans, oxytocin has long been known to stimulate milk secretion and uterine contractions during childbirth. For both men and women, it is also released during sexual orgasm. However, a study out of the University of California, San Francisco, published in the July 1999 issue of Psychiatry, was the first to discover that the hormone might have larger implications when it comes to relationships.
26 non-lactating women between 23 and 35 were asked to
This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2010.