Oxytocin and Social Cognitions in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review

Schizophrenia is a chronic multifactorial disorder. Over the last years, there has been a growing interest in cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, which is considered by many as the core abnormality of the disease. In the systematic review we focus on the social cognition and its correlation with the neuropeptide oxytocin, which is shown to be involved in the emotion recognizing processes, in the trust behavior and many other aspects of social functioning. The systematic review was performed in order to summarize the data on the liaison of oxytocin with the social cognition impairment in schizophrenia patients. Oxytocin is assumed to be a potential therapeutic agent for schizophrenia, with a special link to social cognitive functions. The oxytocinergic system is a promising neuromodulator of emotion recognition that may have the potential to normalize the social dysfunction seen in schizophrenia. Further studies are required to provide more data on the correlations between oxytocin and socialcognition as well as other schizophrenia symptoms.