In a study of 81 children hospitalized in intensive care units in Brazil, researchers found that oxytocin levels significantly increased, whereas cortisol and pain levels significantly decreased, following a 30-minute intervention in which children either played a riddle game or were read a light-hearted story; although both interventions were correlated with positive effects, storytelling yielded approximately twice as high oxytocin levels and twice as low cortisol and pain levels, and also resulted in higher positive emotions during a word association task, compared with the other intervention, according to the authors.
Article #20-18409: "Storytelling increases oxytocin and positive emotions and decreases cortisol and pain in hospitalized children," by Guilherme Brockington et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Guilherme Brockington, Federal University of Sao Paulo, BRAZIL; tel: +55-11 999730920; email: brockington@ufabc.edu.br
###
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences