Oxytocin (OXT) has been frequently linked to prosocial behaviors and emotions, especially empathy. Psychopathy is a disorder characterized in part by chronic antisocial behavior and lack of empathy. Yet, there is a dearth of research examining OXT and empathy in psychopathic samples. The current meta-analysis (k = 17; n = 1151), therefore, was conducted via an extensive multi-source literature review on administered OXT and empathy in non-clinical samples, followed by a review of prior research related to the biological bases of psychopathy. We found that administered intranasal OXT has a significant, small positive effect (Cohen's d = 0.24) on empathy-related performance in non-clinical, mostly male samples. Our findings serve as cautious call for future research examining the possibility of OXT administration as treatment for psychopathic individuals although the effect may not be large and may mainly affect “cognitive empathy,” which data indicates is less impaired in psychopathic individuals compared to “emotional empathy.” Future studies should consider that OXT could exacerbate maladaptive symptoms such as aggression, but more data are needed. Future research should employ reliable and generalizable empathy measures and always examine how empathy subtypes and gender may interact differentially with OXT administration.

催产素 (OXT) 经常与亲社会行为和情绪相关联，尤其是同理心。精神病是一种疾病，部分特征是慢性反社会行为和缺乏同理心。然而，缺乏检查精神病患者样本中的 OXT 和同理心的研究。因此，当前的荟萃分析（k  = 17；n = 1151）是通过对非临床样本中的 OXT 管理和同理心进行广泛的多源文献回顾，然后回顾与生物学基础相关的先前研究来进行的的精神病。我们发现鼻内给予 OXT 有显着的、小的积极作用 (Cohen's d = 0.24）在非临床（主要是男性）样本中与同理心相关的表现。我们的研究结果作为对未来研究的谨慎呼吁，检查 OXT 管理作为精神病患者治疗的可能性，尽管效果可能不大并且可能主要影响“认知同理心”，数据表明与“情绪同理心”相比，精神病患者的受损程度较小” 未来的研究应该考虑到 OXT 可能会加剧攻击性等适应不良症状，但需要更多的数据。未来的研究应该采用可靠和可推广的同理心措施，并始终检查同理心子类型和性别如何与 OXT 管理进行不同的交互。