'Love Hormone' Could Help Anorexics Love Their Bodies

Anorexics may find help accepting food and body images from doses of oxytocin, a hormone commonly referred to as the "love hormone," according to two studies looking into the effects and possible applications of the hormone.

Oxytocin is a hormone released naturally during sex, childbirth, and even breast-feeding, and has been tied to feelings of affection and even "love." Previous studies have found that heightened levels of oxytocin help men and women find the people around them more attractive and lower feelings of aggression. It has even been described as a "key to monogamy."

In two studies authored by Youl-Ri Kim, from the Inje University in Seoul, South Korea, researchers have found that oxytocin reduces patients' unconscious tendencies to feel negative emotions associated with food and body shape, such as disgust.

Knowing this, Kim theorized that additional and regular doses of the hormone administered to anorexic patients may help them become more accepting of their self-image and eating habits.

In one study, published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, 64 participants (31 with anorexia) were either given a placebo or a dose of oxytocin delivered via nasal spray. The participants were then asked to look as a sequence of images relating to food, body shape, and weight.

The participants were then measured on how quickly they identified each image. It was theorized that anorexic patients who frequently dwell on negative images regarding food, body, and weight daily would identify them quicker - and this proved true in the case of anorexic participants given the placebo. However, anorexics who received the oxytocin dose had a reduced focus on negative images, often focusing on "positive" and "negative" body and food images equally.

A second study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, involved the same participant groups and a similar test set up. Again, participants were given either a placebo or a dose of oxytocin and asked to identify pictures before and after taking their allotted treatment. In this study, the participants were asked to identify images of facial expressions displaying anger, happiness, or disgust. Anorexic patients who were sensitive to disgust expressions showed a significantly lower sensitivity after taking the oxytocin.

To confirm their results and even establish a cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers hope to test the applications of oxytocin as a treatment for social disorders on a larger scale in the near future.