Role of Oxytocin in Anxiety in the Normal Parturition

Background: Oxytocin is a hormone whose role is already known in many physiological
processes. Also, resent studies have shown its role in human psychiatric fields such as love,
emotional relationship between couple, mother and infant and maternal behaviors. The aim of this
research was to investigate the role of oxytocin in levels of anxiety in the normal parturition
Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled trial was carried out on 80 pregnant women in
active phase of labor in Darab (Iran) in 2007. Subjects were randomly assigned into two groups of
40 to receive either 10 IU intravenous oxytocin or 5IU intravenous oxytocin. Anxiety traits were
calculated with Berger scale.
Results: Mean of the age and parity in case group were 24.3 and 3 and in control group were
25.3 and 2.9 respectively. The two groups were not statistically different considering age (P=.35),
parity (P=0.84), education (P=0.07) and socio-economic situation (P=0.07). In case group, level of
anxiety before and after induction was 54.7 and 27.4 respectively that is significant (P=0.000).
Likewise, in control group, level of anxiety was 50.8 and 32.3 before and after induction that is
significant (P=0.000), too. Level of anxiety was not significantly different before induction in the
two groups (P=0.05); however, after induction, level of anxiety indicated a higher decrease in case
group compared to that of control group (P=0.04).
Discussion: These results confirm previous findings and indicate the psychiatric roles of
oxytocin in maternal mental health.