59) Progress continues with behavioral improvements & do opiate antagonists potentiate oxytocin's effects?

The transition to the new year is a good time for introspection on the past year- providing a chance to reflect on events of the year including the changes, struggles, successes, lessons learned, etc.  While we cannot deny that 2016 was filled with great conflict and tension for the US and world, it brings me relief and gratitude to report that 2016 was also a year filled with hope for Sasha and others who suffer from similar conditions.

We have had an uneventful holiday season (translation: "no disasters").  While we normally take a few days to go to the mountains with friends, this season we took a "staycation" and hung out at home visiting with friends or fun local venues.  We also hosted our family visiting from out-of-town. During their stay, we left the fridge unlocked for the duration of their 3-day stay and ate out frequently, sometimes twice in a day.  There were no meltdowns about food or any noticeable obsessiveness about food. In spite of the open fridge, frequent meals in restaurants, rich holiday foods, and increased sugary treats, Sasha has continued to lose weight- now down to 70.1 kg at 172 cm tall (154 pounds at 5 feet 7 and 3/4 inches tall).

On one occasion before Christmas, Sasha even baked and decorated 5 dozen sugary Christmas cookies (to give to neighbors) with his sister and I was NOT IN THE KITCHEN during their baking/decorating (and neither was Kitchen Bitch)! I did ask his sister how he did with the baking and she swears that she did not see any sneaky behaviors on his part.  She has been (fortunately/unfortunately) trained by default to be very vigilant to Sasha's food sneaking so I believe her report that there was no "funny business" with the cookies.  As I am writing this, I must admit that my absence during the cookie baking and decorating was already a significant event in itself since I would have NEVER (pre-oxytocin) allowed him to bake cookies without my strict supervision!  This time, I was able to let go and relax in a way like never before.

In regards to his metabolic health, we are awaiting the results from a fasting Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) with insulin to see if he hypersecretes insulin.  So far, so good. I will post complete results after they trickle in.

While I was lying around today perusing the oxytocin literature, I came across a researcher (Steve Chang, Ph.D. at Yale) who studies neuro-endocrine underpinnings of social deficits/motivation and found that opiate antagonists (Naloxone, the injectable Naltrexone) enhanced the effects of oxytocin (more than with oxytocin alone or naloxone alone) on social attention and exploration (via mutual eye gazing) in monkeys.  I found his results fascinating since I started Sasha on the opiate antagonist with the intention of having it help him decrease his sugar cravings, not with the intention of having it increase his social interactions.  According to Dr. Chang, his lab is the first to document the potentiating effect of naloxone on oxytocin in regards to social interactions (and about to publish their results) although he pointed me to other studies that have shown the interaction of the two systems in the hypothalamus.  Maybe we are getting a 2-for-the-price-of-1 deal here?!

Some papers on the interaction of oxytocin and opiate antagonists:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9776384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2864649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2855107/
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v298/n5870/abs/298161a0.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2999285/

Speaking of social interactions, Sasha had his friend over to the house before Christmas to play their card game and it went well.  He is going to reach out to the boy again over the weekend to see if they can get together again. He continues to attend the weekly get together to play cards. Also, Sasha is a New Year's Day baby and he will be having a birthday party with some friends from his card club next weekend.  I can't even believe that I'm writing the word "friends" because he has really not had any peer friends that he made on his own for the past five years... more progress made, thanks to oxytocin/naltrexone!

Happy Birthday, Sasha!

Happy New Year, Everyone!