A Pilot Study of Oxytocin in Low-Income Women With a Low Birth-Weight Infant: Is Oxytocin Related to Posttraumatic Stress?
Lindsey Garfield, Diane Holditch-Davis, C Sue Carter and 4 others
PMID 30893095WHAT IT FOUND
Across four timed blood draws in 8 low-income mothers of NICU infants, oxytocin levels did not differ across time points.
Two mothers with elevated postpartum posttraumatic stress symptoms had lower oxytocin, but this is a pilot association, not a screening finding.
Key findings
01Oxytocin levels did not differ across the four serial blood samples.
02Mothers with elevated postpartum posttraumatic stress symptoms had lower oxytocin values than mothers not at risk.
03Providing breastmilk during the infant's NICU stay was associated with lower posttraumatic stress and depressive symptom scores, but not with oxytocin levels.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only eight mothers were studied, and they were a convenience sample, so the results cannot be generalized to other mothers or NICUs. The study tested no intervention, so associations cannot show that oxytocin, breastfeeding, or mental health symptoms caused each other. Oxytocin values were highly skewed and varied widely, and one blood draw was missed, so a single high value may be a spike rather than a stable level. Blood samples and questionnaires were collected on one day, but mothers were enrolled from day 10 to day 74 postpartum, and infant stability varied. The pilot used a p < 0.1 threshold and had only two mothers with elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms, so the oxytocin association is fragile. Mothers of infants on mechanical ventilation were excluded, so the sample may not represent the most acutely ill NICU infants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that oxytocin blood testing can identify mothers at risk for postpartum posttraumatic stress. This pilot had a very small sample, a single day of sampling, highly variable oxytocin values, and the authors state there is no recommendation for measuring oxytocin.