Relationships and Stress Lab

The Oxytocin and Vasopressin in Life Events Study or LOVE Study was designed to test possible mechanisms responsible for the 2:1 sex difference in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence rates. The most viable descriptive explanation for the PTSD prevalence sex disparity is in regards to the chronicity of trauma women are differentially exposed to, specifically in terms of intimate partner violence (IPV). The interplay between PTSD and IPV within relationships has cumulative negative effects on women. That is, PTSD is the most prevalent psychological consequence of IPV, and PTSD is consistently associated with men’s perpetration of IPV.

As part of the NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program, Dr. Marshall worked to explicate mechanisms directly responsible for the sex difference in PTSD prevalence rates that also indirectly impact the sex disparity by playing a central role in men’s perpetration of IPV and women’s commitment to relationships marked by violence. She focuses on neuroendocrine and related cognitive processes that become dysregulated following trauma. These variables include oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP), two neuropeptides of functional and structural similarity from which sexually dimorphic responses emerge. She also examines social cognition, particularly perceptions of threat, as a mechanism through which OT and AVP may impact the PTSD sex disparity.

The LOVE study included double-blind procedures for the intranasal administration of AVP prior to an exogenous cueing paradigm (for the measurement of attention to partner and stranger facial expressions of emotions) and a laboratory partner interaction designed to induce negative feelings and behaviors. Study procedures also included measurement of hormonal reactivity via a change in peripheral hormones in the context of positive laboratory partner interactions. This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 5K12HD055882 (PI: Weisman). Dissemination efforts are ongoing.