ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05319301Updated Apr 9, 2024

Identification and Clinical Relevance of an Oxytocin Deficient State (Melatonin Study)

An interventional study of Melatonin in Oxytocin Deficiency, Hypopituitarism and Hypothalamic Obesity, sponsored by Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Completed at 1 site in Spain. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-04-09.

Sponsored by Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau · Not applicable, Interventional, and Diagnostic

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
40
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Oxytocin (OT) is a hypothalamic peptide that enters the peripheral circulation via the posterior pituitary gland. OT plays a key role in regulating appetite, psychopathology, prosocial behavior and sexual function. Hypopituitarism is associated with increased obesity, increased psychopathology, sexual and prosocial dysfunction despite appropriate hormone replacement. A few studies suggest the existence of a possible OT deficient state in hypopituitarism. In animal models, melatonin has shown to increase OT release.

This study is designed to evaluate oxytocin values after administration of melatonin in adults (healthy volunteers and patients with hypopituitarism).

The investigators hypothesize that OT response will be blunted following melatonin in patients with hypopituitarism compared to healthy controls.

02

Conditions studied

  • Oxytocin Deficiency
  • Hypopituitarism
  • Hypothalamic Obesity
  • Pituitary Dysfunction
  • Central Diabetes Insipidus
  • Social Isolation

Keywords

  • oxytocin
  • melatonin
  • hypopituitarism
  • vasopresin deficiency
03

In context

Hypopituitarism

47 studies on the registry are indexed under Hypopituitarism; 8 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 40 is close to the median of 38 across 29 interventional studies indexed under Hypopituitarism.

Browse Hypopituitarism studies →

Lead sponsor

Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau is the lead sponsor of 343 studies on the registry; 65 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients with hypopituitarism (HYPO) (>1 pituitary hormone deficiency) and stable hormone replacement for the prior three months
  • At least one clinical sign of hypothalamic damage

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • uncorrected hormone deficiency
  • creatinine >1.5mg/dL
  • (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) >2.5x
  • hematocrit less than 30%
  • suicidality or active psychosis
  • participation in a trial with drugs within 30 days
  • using a high dose
  • vigorous physical exercise
  • alcohol intake within 24 hours before the study participation
  • evidence of any acute illness or any illness that the Investigator determines could interfere with study participation or safety
  • pregnancy or breastfeeding for last 8 weeks
  • known allergies towards melatonin
  • patients refusing or unable to give written
  • patients receiving fluvoxamine and/or impossibility to stop hypnotics 48 hours prior to the study visit.
  • Additionally for healthy controls: the presence of brain or pituitary tumor, radiation involving the hypothalamus or pituitary, history of hypopituitarism or receiving testosterone or glucocorticoids esters.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(5)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Diagnostic
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
40 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Patients with hypopituitarism

    A single dose of melatonin administration

    Dietary Supplement: Melatonin

  • Active comparator
    Healthy controls

    A single dose of melatonin administration

    Dietary Supplement: Melatonin

Interventions

  • Dietary supplementMelatonin

    A single dose of melatonin (1.9 mg)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in oxytocin concentration

    Change in oxytocin concentration (pg/mL) after administration of 1.9 mg of melatonin orally.

    Time frame: Baseline blood exam (timepoint 0) and further blood collections after 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after baseline blood collection

Secondary outcomes

  1. Maximal change in oxytocin concentration (pg/mL)

    Maximal change in oxytocin concentration (pg/mL) after administration of 1.9 mg of melatonin administered orally.

    Time frame: Within the two hours after the injection

  2. Overall oxytocin secretion

    Oxytocin area under the curve after administration of 1.9 melatonin administered orally

    Time frame: Within the two hours after the injection

  3. Mood assessment

    Correlation between Beck Depression Inventory-2 score (range from 0 to 63, higher scores mean a worse outcome) and baseline oxytocin concentration (pg/mL)

    Time frame: At baseline

  4. Quality of life assessment

    Correlation between 36 item- Short Form Health Survey score (range from 0 to 100, the higher scores indicate better health status) and baseline oxytocin concentration (pg/mL)

    Time frame: At baseline

  5. Impulsivity assessment

    Correlation between Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (range from 30 to 120, higher scores indicate greater impulsivity) and baseline oxytocin concentration (pg/mL)

    Time frame: At baseline

  6. Alexithymia assessment

    Correlation between Toronto Alexithymia scales-20 score (range from 20 to 100, higher scores mean a worse outcome) and baseline oxytocin concentration (pg/mL)

    Time frame: At baseline

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
    Barcelona, 08041, Spain
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Apr 2022 to primary completion in Sep 2023, 17 months.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Mar 17, 2022
First posted
Apr 8, 2022
StartActual
Apr 1, 2022
Primary completionActual
Sep 1, 2023
CompletionActual
Nov 1, 2023
Last update
Apr 9, 2024
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 9, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05319301
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 8, 2022
Start date
Apr 1, 2022
Primary completion
Sep 1, 2023
Completion
Nov 1, 2023
Last update
Apr 9, 2024

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Studies of the drug tested here: Melatonin

Start the discussion