Depression affects millions worldwide, thus underscoring the urgent need to optimize health care practices. To better understand the processes involved in psychotherapy gains, studies have emphasized the need to complement subjective reports with objective measures, in particular biological markers. Oxytocin (OT) has been proposed as a potential biomarker in the treatment of depression given its involvement in depression-related psychological and physiological functions and the formation of close relationships. Here, we assessed whether OT reactivity to therapeutic encounters (absolute and/or directional reactivity) is linked to improvements in depressive symptoms from session to session during psychotherapy. A total of 284 saliva samples were collected from 30 adult clients who underwent 16 sessions of manualized psychodynamic psychotherapy for depression in a university setting. Salivary OT was measured before and after five preselected sessions distributed evenly throughout the therapy. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was administered at the beginning of each session. Multilevel growth models indicated that clients exhibiting greater absolute OT reactivity showed greater improvement in depressive symptoms throughout treatment. Directional reactivity was not associated with depressive symptom change. In addition, clients with higher baseline OT levels displayed less change in depressive symptoms. These findings highlight reactivity of the OT system, in either direction, as an important feature of the treatment response. Consistent with recent models of the neurobiology of resilience, OT reactivity appears to serve as an important biomarker of psychotherapy gain in the treatment of depression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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催产素对治疗遭遇的反应性作为抑郁症治疗变化的生物标志物。

抑郁症影响着全世界数百万人，因此强调了优化医疗保健实践的迫切需要。为了更好地理解心理治疗所涉及的过程，研究强调需要用客观的措施来补充主观报告，特别是生物标志物。催产素 (OT) 已被提议作为治疗抑郁症的潜在生物标志物，因为它参与抑郁症相关的心理和生理功能并形成密切关系。在这里，我们评估了 OT 对治疗遭遇的反应（绝对和/或定向反应）是否与心理治疗期间抑郁症状的改善有关。从 30 名成年客户那里收集了总共 284 份唾液样本，这些客户在大学环境中接受了 16 次针对抑郁症的手动心理动力学心理治疗。在整个治疗过程中均匀分布的五次预选会话之前和之后测量唾液 OT。贝克抑郁量表-II (BDI-II) 在每次会议开始时进行管理。多层次增长模型表明，表现出更高绝对 OT 反应性的客户在整个治疗过程中表现出更大的抑郁症状改善。定向反应与抑郁症状改变无关。此外，基线 OT 水平较高的客户的抑郁症状变化较小。这些发现强调了 OT 系统在任一方向上的反应性，这是治疗反应的一个重要特征。与最近的复原力神经生物学模型一致，OT 反应性似乎是抑郁症治疗中心理治疗获益的重要生物标志物。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。