L’oxytocinalso called “love hormone”, may be the solution to treat anorexia, according to two studies published in the journals Plos One and Psychoneuroendocrinology and carried out by English and Korean researchers. This hormone, naturally synthesized by the body in the brain and stored in the hypothalamus, is released during childbirth, breastfeeding and sexual relations. According to scientists, it would help people with anorexia to reduce their fixation on food and on the image of their body.
During a first study, in Australia, 31 patients and 33 healthy people received a dose of oxytocin or a placebo by seeing nasal. They then observed images representing high and low calorie foods and people of varying builds. The anorexics having inhaled oxytocin concentrated less on the “negative” images, unlike the patients who had received a placebo.
The potential of treatment
In the study published on Plon One, the researchers analyzed the reactions to facial expressions of the same group of volunteers. Based on the fact that anorexia might be linked to an increased perception of threat, they noticed that patients on oxytocin focused less on faces expressing disgust or anger.
“The research is still at an early stage and has been performed on a small number of participants, but it’s extremely exciting to see the potential this treatment could have. More testing is needed in more diverse populations before to be able to start changing the way patients are treated,” concludes Janet Treasurespecialist in eating disorders, professor of psychiatry and main author of the two surveys.
