Banishing shyness may one day be just a sniff away, according to new research.

A study from Concordia University, to be published early next year in the journal Psychopharmacology, has found that a form of intranasal oxytocin spray can smooth awkward social encounters.

This suggests that this natural hormone helps to build relationships, that there is a biological basis for them, says Christopher Cardoso, a graduate student at Concordia’s Centre for Research in Human Development and the study’s lead author.

Oxytocin is a hormone released by the hypothalamus during breastfeeding and bonding experiences, such as sex and social engagement. It creates a wide range of physiological, emotional, and behavioural effects.

The goal of the study was to see whether it can alter personality traits, Cardoso says.

The study suggests it does.

Personalities typically remain stable, Cardoso says. A study published in 2000, which tested 2,300 men and women over nine years, showed that we answer questions about personality traits the same way over our lifetime. Other studies have had the same conclusion.

Cardoso’s oxytocin study involved 100 men and women, ages 18 to 35, who were not taking any medication, suffering from a current or past mental disorder or using recreational drugs or cigarette smokers.

The participants inhaled a synthetic version of oxytocin through a nasal spray and 90 minutes later completed questionnaires on how they felt. They were evaluated for neuroticism, extroversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

This study shows oxytocin can make people answer those questions differently, Cardoso says, adding personality traits such as warmth, trust, altruism and openness were amplified.

“The thinking behind it is if people see themselves in a different way, maybe they’ll also interact with the world in a different way,” says Cardoso. The study confirms this.

“It makes people a lot more open to human interaction,” Cardoso says.

Results were consistent across the board, Cardoso says, noting that everyone became more extroverted, even those extroverted to begin with.

But this doesn’t mean there is a magic potion for shyness around the corner, he cautions. “We’re a long ways away from implementing it for use in the general public.”

Oxytocin — not to be confused with OxyContin or oxycodone, strong narcotic painkillers — has been studied for the last 20 years for its impact on social behaviours.

Research shows that it plays an important role in promoting social behaviours in men and women, although it was initially thought to be a female reproductive hormone.

It’s not known exactly what role the oxytocin plays in the body and brain in general, however.

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It has had an important function in our evolution, according to Meg Daley Olmert, whose 2009 book Made for Each Other: the Biology of the Human-Animal Bond, examined oxytocin’s role in our relationship with animals.

Olmert, at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is currently measuring the biological underpinnings of oxytocin using dogs and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s also a critical antistress agent, able to reduce social fears and anxiety and inhibit the brain’s defensive fight-flight response,” she says. “I believe what it does is give (people) that benefit of the doubt.”

And it could give big bucks to any company that can bring it to the market.

“Big Pharma has been trying to figure out how to boost the oxytocin system for a long time,” she says.

An oxytocin drug is many years away, Olmert says. There are many unknowns, such as safe dosage, the length of time a dose lasts in the body and the impact of chronic use. There also isn’t an effective delivery — the inhalant is unpleasant, she says.

We can increase oxytocin naturally, Olmert says. Hugging, social activity, massage all do it. So does having a pet, if you like animals.

Researchers have found dramatic positive changes in veterans with severe PTSD who spend time interacting with dogs.

“All signs are that dogs produce a powerful antistress effect, which indicates that it is the oxytocin system,” Olmert says.

bturnbull@thestar.ca