Intranasal oxytocin can relieve stress in singers during singing performance: Study

"The finding is exploratory, and its confirmation if made in future research, may be relevant for musicians, particularly for those who constantly face negative and catastrophic thoughts on professional and performance activities," Flávia de Lima Osório, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, São Paulo University, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil, and colleagues wrote in their study.

Professional musicians experience high preoccupation levels, intense social exposure to their performance, and potential adverse reactions from the audience, leading to anxiety. These experiences constitute what is called music performance anxiety (MPA). MPA can be defined as a subtype of social anxiety tied to a specific performance condition.

Oxytocin is shown to have a potential therapeutic effect on cognitive processes, anxiety, and decreased psychosocial stress. Considering this, the research team aimed to examine the impact of a single dose of 24 UI of intranasal OXT in professional singers during a public singing simulation test on self-rated mood and performance.

For this purpose, the researchers assessed 54 male singers with different levels of musical performance anxiety (42% high) in a crossover, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. The participants participated in various phases of simulated public singing performance. They self-rated their performances and mood based. Data analysis was done using ANOVA 2 × 2 for crossover trials.

The study showed that oxytocin use during the performance and immediate post-stress led to more positive and less negative assessments of singing performance than the use of a placebo. The researchers did not find any treatment effects in any VAMS subscales, suggesting no direct anxiolytic effects.

"Oxytocin improved the self-perception of the participants during and immediately after their performance," the researchers wrote, underscoring the effect of OXT in the MPA's cognitive component of MPA, with a high size effect. "Given the negative and catastrophic thoughts related to MPA are common and lead to harm and suffering, with loss of quality of work and life, this finding is relevant."

To conclude, OXT can minimize social stress, particularly during performances.

Reference:

Osório FL, Espitia-Rojas GV and Aguiar-Ricz LN (2022) Effects of intranasal oxytocin on the self-perception and anxiety of singers during a simulated public singing performance: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Front. Neurosci. 16:943578. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.943578