Oxytocin is a nine-amino-acid peptide hormone from the pituitary that triggers uterine contractions; synthetic oxytocin is sold in the US as Pitocin injection.
The Pitocin label on DailyMed describes a synthetic nonapeptide, made synthetically to avoid contamination with vasopressin, a related pituitary hormone that differs from oxytocin at two amino acids. The label lists it for intravenous infusion or intramuscular injection.
Researchers have also tested intranasal oxytocin for social behavior. In a 2021 New England Journal of Medicine trial of 290 children and adolescents with autism, 24 weeks of nasal oxytocin did no better than placebo on social or cognitive measures, and side effects were similar in both groups. The study was funded by the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and registered as NCT01944046.
Yes. Pitocin and generic oxytocin injections are FDA-approved to start or strengthen labor for medical reasons and to control bleeding after delivery.
The label states that Pitocin is not indicated for elective induction of labor. No intranasal oxytocin is an FDA-approved product on the US market today: Drugs@FDA lists the Syntocinon nasal solution (NDA 012285) as discontinued. Gray-market research vials are not Pitocin or an approved generic, and they come with none of the review behind those products.
Oxytocin quality is a documented problem even in medicine supply chains. A 2016 WHO-coauthored systematic review in BJOG of 559 oxytocin samples from 15 low- and middle-income countries found that more than a third held under 90% of the labeled oxytocin, and two samples held none. A research vial with no regulator behind it deserves at least that much scrutiny.
Before trusting a oxytocin label, check that batch’s published result on our latest tests page or in Janoshik’s public results database. Our index has no published results for oxytocin yet. When the first published result arrives, a vendor leaderboard appears above.