Parent observed neuro-behavioral and pro-social improvements with oxytocin following surgical resection of craniopharyngioma
-
Naomi Cook
and
John Hart
Abstract
Social and emotional impairment, school dysfunction, and neurobehavioral impairment are highly prevalent in survivors of childhood craniopharyngioma and negatively affect quality of life. As surgical resection of craniopharyngioma typically impairs hypothalamic/pituitary function, it has been postulated that perhaps post-operative deficiency of the hormone oxytocin may be the etiology of social/emotional impairment. Research on the benefits of oxytocin treatment as a hormone facilitating social interaction is well established. However, no research has yet been conducted on patients with known pituitary/hypothalamic dysfunction due to structural lesions or surgery. This case report investigates the effects of oxytocin therapy on a youngster with pituitary/hypothalamic dysfunction after craniopharyngioma removal. In this individual, treatment with low dose intranasal oxytocin resulted in increased desire for socialization and improvement in affection towards family. In light of these findings, the authors believe that further research into the potential benefits of intranasal oxytocin therapy for patients with panhypopituitarism is necessary to determine whether a broader population may also benefit from intranasal oxytocin therapy.
Acknowledgments
Gabriel Zada, Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, USC Pituitary Center, USA and Justin Seltzer, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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©2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Original Articles
- Decreased undercarboxylated osteocalcin in children with type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Evaluation of left and right ventricular functions using conventional and tissue Doppler echocardiography in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus
- Prevalence of psychosocial morbidity in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus: a survey from Northern India
- Increased GLP-1 response to oral glucose in pre-pubertal obese children
- Prevalence of idiopathic intracranial hypertension and associated factors in obese children and adolescents
- Idiopathic postprandial hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia
- Feeding, eating and behavioral disturbances in Prader-Willi syndrome and non-syndromal obesity
- Interpretation of thyroid glands in a group of healthy children: real-time ultrasonography elastography study
- Ghrelin, insulin-like growth factor I and adipocytokines concentrations in born small for gestational age prepubertal children after the catch-up growth
- Zoledronate for Osteogenesis imperfecta: evaluation of safety profile in children
- Elevated serum adiponectin is related to elevated serum ferritin and interleukin-6 in β-thalassaemia major children
- GCK mutations in Chinese MODY2 patients: a family pedigree report and review of Chinese literature
- Cystinosis in Eastern Turkey
- Microarray analysis of slipped capital femoral epiphysis growth plates
- Case Reports
- Autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy: report of three cases from Iran
- Type 1 diabetes and GAD65 limbic encephalitis: a case report of a 10-year-old girl
- A novel splice site mutation in the GNPTAB gene in an Iranian patient with mucolipidosis II α/β
- Parent observed neuro-behavioral and pro-social improvements with oxytocin following surgical resection of craniopharyngioma
- A fatal outcome of complicated severe diabetic ketoacidosis in a 11-year-old girl
