Susan Kuchinskas, one of my fellow Indy Science Bloggers, writes about oxytocin in her blog ‘Hug the Monkey‘:

“Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that helps regulate many of the body’s functions, including hunger, thirst and blood pressure. But it plays a special role in bonding with other people. When we’re touched by someone we trust, when we make love and orgasm, when we simply spend time with someone we like, our brains release pulses of oxytocin that make us feel deep bonds with that person.”

In one of her recent posts she interviews Michael Gurian whose work helps parents and teachers to understand the differences between boys and girls. As explained in the post - adolescent boys have bodies full of testosterone and tend to behave with ‘aggression nurturance’, which involves competitiveness. While girls, due to the effects of estrogen and oxytocin, lean more toward ‘empathy nurturance’. Its a very interesting topic and discussion about how these tendencies affect how we grow and form relationships with each other.

She also writes about adoption and attachment issues now and then. As my husband and I are in the process of adopting I am always interested in reading more about attachment. In a post from back in December she talks about a situation with some parents in Minnesota who adopted a boy from the Ukraine who had quite a few behavioral problems due to reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Eventually they took him back to the Ukraine but he was sent back to the US.

Its a really sad story, but the kind that wouldn’t happen as often if more adoptive parents were informed about possible attachment problems before they adopted. Adoption agencies should be more responsible in educating adoptive parents so that they understand what they are getting into. Many of us learn on our own from the many adoption web sites and forums where these topics are discussed. When parents are informed of the risks and the symptoms to look out for they can make better decisions about adopting and know where to go to for help if they do run into problems. I suspect that most people are not aware of what attachment disorders are or how severe they can sometimes be. People wanting to adopt are also not likely to be very aware unless their agencies talk to them about it.

Please stop by Susan’s blog when you get the chance - it is very interesting stuff!

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