Impact of Emotional Mimicry and Oxytocin on Frontotemporal Dementia

Impact of Emotional Mimicry and Oxytocin on Frontotemporal Dementia

This study will evaluate the effects on emotions and neural activity of a one time dose of intranasal oxytocin vs. placebo in patients with FTD and healthy controls.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Pick's disease cause changes in personality, behaviour, and emotional responses. The usual treatments for Frontotemporal dementia focus on reducing agitation and aggressive behaviours. However, these drugs do not help all patients who experience blunting of emotion and loss of empathy. This study will evaluate the effects on emotions and neural activity of a one time dose of intranasal oxytocin vs. placebo in patients with FTD and healthy controls.

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients:

• Ages 30-85
• meet consensus criteria for probable behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD)

Controls:

• Age and sex matched with patients
• Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) scores >27

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients:

• history of stroke
• intracranial haemorrhage or other medical or neurological disorder apart from FTD that could affect cognition
• diagnosis of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia not better accounted for by the diagnosis of FTD
• cognitive impairment that precludes comprehension of task instructions
• contraindication to MRI scanning
• severe language or memory deficits that preclude participation in the study visits and measures
• females who are pregnant or breastfeeding (a pregnancy test will be done on females who have not completed menopause).
• uncontrolled hypertension
• bradycardia (rate <48 bpm) or tachycardia (rate > 100 bpm)
• current use of prostaglandins

Controls:

• history of stroke
• intracranial haemorrhage or other medical or neurological disorder
• diagnosis of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia
• cognitive impairment that precludes comprehension of task instructions
• contraindication to MRI scanning
• severe language or memory deficits that preclude participation in the study visits and measures
• females who are pregnant or breastfeeding (a pregnancy test will be done on females who have not completed menopause).
• uncontrolled hypertension
• bradycardia (rate <48 bpm) or tachycardia (rate > 100 bpm)
• current use of prostaglandins