Vasotocin effects in depressive patients with eating disorders.

Since arginine vasotocin (AVT) effects are mediated by serotonin, which was involved in the production of eating disorders, disorders which show many common mechanisms with the depressive disorders, and since AVT was used as treatment of depressive disorders, we investigated the AVT effects in a double-blind study with patients with eating disorders. We compared AVT effects on 15 patients with eating disorders to 18 patients with eating disorders which received tricyclic antidepressants or cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. The severity of depression was assessed by means of the Hamilton Depression Scale and of Beck's Depression Inventory, before and after three months therapy.

Vasotocin improves intelligence and attention in mentally retarded children.

In mentally retarded (MR) prepubertal children, investigated both before and after six months of treatment, synthetic arginine vasotocin (AVT) (10(-6) mg/day/0.1 ml, intranasally), but not oxytocin or saline alone, significantly increased the intelligence quotient (IQ) and improved the attention parameters without affecting the short-term memory. Taking into account both the psychometric results and the clinical observations, the effects of AVT could be mainly explained by assuming the improvement of attention.