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Oxytocin has been recognized as an important hormone involved in the mechanism of social buffering. Oxytocin is a molecule that is often called the "love hormone". [32] It is released into the blood in response to physiological and psychological stress, and increased oxytocin release from the hypothalamus inhibits activation of the HPA axis.
The function of oxytocin may lead to an increase in maternal behavior by subsequently reducing anxiety as it has been found to regulate anxiety, social recognition, and coping with stress. [28] Early studies have found that oxytocin influenced maternal behavior of mother rats depending on the environment in which they were placed. Oxytocin ...
Lowering a stress response in women that are suffering from PPD may be beneficial to the infant-mother bond. Studies have shown that breast-feeding causes levels of plasma OT to increase in women. Experiments designed and performed in the 1980s helped researchers understand the correlation between breastfeeding prior to a stressful event and ...
The authors of one of these studies speculated that oxytocin's effects on muscle contractibility may facilitate sperm and egg transport. [77] In a study measuring oxytocin serum levels in women before and after sexual stimulation, the author suggests it serves an important role in sexual arousal. This study found genital tract stimulation ...
[49] [28] High dosages of testosterone that result in supraphysiological levels of testosterone (> 50 ng/dL) significantly increase sexual desire in women, with levels of testosterone of 80 to 150 ng/dL "slightly" increasing sexual desire. [49] [28] Further higher dosages of testosterone may result in greater effects on sexual desire in women.
Oxytocin's uterine-contracting properties were discovered by British pharmacologist Henry Hallett Dale in 1906. [9] Oxytocin's milk ejection property was described by Ott and Scott in 1910 [44] and by Schafer and Mackenzie in 1911. [45] Oxytocin was the first polypeptide hormone to be sequenced [46] or synthesized.
Women with fewer resources indicate a higher level of postpartum depression and stress than those women with more resources, such as financial. [65] Rates of PPD have been shown to decrease as income increases. Women with fewer resources may be more likely to have an unintended or unwanted pregnancy, increasing the risk of PPD.
Candidate gene analysis of 5-HTTLPR on depression was inconclusive on its effect, either alone or in combination with life stress. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] A 2003 study proposed that a gene-environment interaction (GxE) may explain why life stress is a predictor for depressive episodes in some individuals, but not in others, depending on an allelic ...