Oxytocin protocol
Oxytocin (nonapeptide hormone). Dosing on this page comes from a published human trial or an approved product label, cited below.
How Oxytocin works
A nine-amino-acid hypothalamic hormone acting on uterine smooth muscle and mammary myoepithelium, and centrally on social and affiliative behaviour. It is one of the few compounds on this site that is a long-established approved drug.
Oxytocin dosing schedule
Two entirely separate literatures exist and are frequently conflated. The approved clinical use is obstetric — intravenous infusion for labour induction and postpartum haemorrhage, given in milliunits per minute under monitoring. The behavioural research literature uses intranasal administration in International Units, and that work is observational-scale physiology, not an approved indication.
| Phase | Amount | Frequency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approved obstetric use | Titrated milliunits/minute | Continuous intravenous infusion | Administered under continuous monitoring in a clinical setting. Not a self-administration protocol in any sense. |
| Behavioural research | 24 IU | Single intranasal dose | The amount most commonly used across the social-cognition literature. |
Study length: Obstetric use is titrated to clinical response. Research intranasal use is typically single-dose within a study session.
Reconstitution and measurement
This part is arithmetic and does not depend on the evidence level. Concentration is vial size divided by the bacteriostatic water you add. Draw volume is your target amount divided by that concentration. Units are draw volume times 100, because a U-100 syringe reads 100 units per millilitre. Common vials for Oxytocin: Not stocked by our featured supplier.
Storage and stability
Reported effects
- The obstetric label carries serious warnings tied to uterine activity and to water intoxication with prolonged infusion — oxytocin has antidiuretic activity at higher amounts.
- The intranasal behavioural literature reports mild effects and has significant replication problems; effect sizes have shrunk considerably in larger studies.
- Approved for obstetric use only. There is no approved behavioural or recreational indication.
Sourcing Oxytocin
Our featured supplier does not stock this compound, and we are not going to point you at a vendor we have not looked at. Use the COA checklist on whoever you do buy from, and check the batch number on the certificate against the vial you receive.
