1. Oxytocin and Resilience

2. Oxytocin The “Love Hormone” ◦ Trust ◦ Positive feelings ◦ Anxiolytic ◦ Sex and pair bonding ◦ Empathy Produced: Hypothalamus Released: Posterior Pituitary Gq – PLC/IP3 pathway

3. Traumatic

4. Scantamburlo 07 Anxiety Depression R=-0.58 R 2 =0.33 P=0.003 R=-0.61 R 2 =0.37 P=0.005

5. Chaviaras 10 Oxytocin agonist Used in humans Less locomotion when given i.p.?

6. Stress HPA axis

7. H ypothalamus P ituitary A drenal Stress

8. HPA axis

9. Different Polymorphisms Chen 2011 ◦ Rs53576  GG  GA  AA Thompson 2011 ◦ Rs2254298  GG  GA

10. Thompson 11 Mother with depression?Rs2254298? Hi / Low adversity+ / - polymorphisim Environment x Genetics

11. Thompson 11

12. Receptor Polymorphism Rs53576 ◦ Adenosine (A) instead of a Guanine (G) ◦ Opposite effect of adding Oxytocin ◦ Non-coding intron mutation!  “the genetic variant investigated in this study in likely a marker for still-unidentified functional variants of the gene”

13. Chen 11 Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium %

14. Chen 11 Meanwhile in Germany… Social SupportNO Social Support N = 203

15. Chen 11 Trier Social Stress for Groups

16. Chen 11 *

18. Take home Oxytocin has antidepressant/anxiolytic action ◦ Promotes resilience Responsible for positive effects of social support Receptor polymorphisms appear to confer a loss of function