The endogenous oxytocin after manipulative osteopathic treatment in full-term pregnant women

A. Ragusa, A. Svelato, M. Fogolari, F. Ficarola, F. Plotti, C. De Luca, S. D’Avino, F. Davini, M. De Cesaris, G. Messina, A. Bertolini, R. Marci, S. Angeletti, R. Angioli, C. Terranova

Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital Foundation Rome, Italy. ficarola.fernando@gmail.com

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• Obstetrics

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to assess whether the touch of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) can affect the endogenous production of oxytocin in full-term pregnant women and the assessment of well-being following the treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study have been enrolled 57 pregnant women at full-term pregnancy (37th-41st week) for evaluation of the concentration of salivary oxytocin 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after a single session of OMT by an osteopath lasting for 30 minutes. Pre-OMT and post-OMT saliva samples were collected with the use of Salivette® salivary swabs. 7 salivary swabs were excluded from the analysis. 50 samples were analyzed with an appropriate ELISA kit.

RESULTS: The mean OT salivary concentration pre-OMT was 89.98±16.39, and post-OMT was 100.60±19.13 tends to increase with p=0.0000051. In multivariate analysis, two subgroups show interesting data in the mean difference in OT salivary concentration post-OMT: women with painful contractions (p=0.06) and women under 35 years (p=0.09).

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate that the effectiveness of OMT-increasing endogenous oxytocin is statistically significant in full-term pregnant women. The sensation of well-being found in most women indicates that there has been a predominantly central rather than peripheral oxytocin release after OMT.

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