Objectives: To test the possible association between oxytocin and melatonin levels with the severity of social and cognitive dysfunctions and to study the correlation between these parameters in children with autism.
Methods: A case control study was carried out in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of medicine, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad- Iraq. The study was done for 60 male patients who had autism recruited from Pediatric Department at Al-Sader General hospital, Baghdad-Iraq between November 2014 and April 2015.
The levels of oxytocin and melatonin were measured in the serum of 60 Iraqi autistic male patients, categorized as mild, moderate and severe (20 patients each) and compared with 26 age- and gender-matched control subjects.
Results: The data indicated that the levels of oxytocin and melatonin in patients (44.72±36.1 μIU/mL and 23.08±10.41 pg/mL respectively) were significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of age and gender-matched controls (102.1 μIU/mL ±34.31 and 53.05±38.38 pg/mL respectively). These parameters were remarkably associated with the severity of the disease that indicated by the significant decrease in the levels of oxytocin and melatonin in moderate (47±25.47 μIU/mL and 20±6.14 pg/mL respectively) and severe (27.92±10.23 μIU/mL and 21.69±7.02 pg/mL respectively) patients when compared with mild autistic patients (59.22±27.32 μIU/mL and 27.55±14.71 pg/mL respectively). These two parameters showing a significant positive correlation with each other in moderate (r=0.513; p=0.021) and severe patients (r=0.598; p=0.005). Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that oxytocin can be considered as a good diagnostic marker in severe autistic patients while melatonin can be considered as good diagnostic marker in all autistic subgroups.
Conclusions: The possibility of using oxytocin and melatonin in the diagnosis and as markers of autism severity.
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4 /1 /2016
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