The "love hormone" oxytocin could be an effective treatment for anorexia nervosa.
The hormone could help those suffering from anorexia nervosa stop fixating on images of "high calorie foods and larger body types," a King's College London news release reported.
Anorexia affects one in 150 teenage girls in the U.S. and can lead to death from medical complications or suicide. The condition can also cause issues with "food, eating and body shape...social difficulties, including anxiety and hypersensitivity to negative emotions," the news release reported.
"Patients with anorexia have a range of social difficulties which often start in their early teenage years, before the onset of the illness. These social problems, which can result in isolation, may be important in understanding both the onset and maintenance of anorexia. By using oxytocin as a potential treatment for anorexia, we are focusing on some of these underlying problems we see in patients," Professor Janet Treasure from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said in the news release.
Oxytocin is naturally released during sex, bonding, breastfeeding, and childbirth. In the past the hormone has proven to ease social anxiety in those with autism.
The first study found anorexia patients reduced their focus on images of fatty foods and body parts after taking oxytocin. A second study found the participants were also less likely to fixate on images of disgusted or angry facial expressions.
"Our research shows that oxytocin reduces patients' unconscious tendencies to focus on food, body shape, and negative emotions such as disgust. There is currently a lack of effective pharmacological treatments for anorexia. Our research adds important evidence to the increasing literature on oxytocin treatments for mental illnesses, and hints at the advent of a novel, ground-breaking treatment option for patients with anorexia," Professor Youl-Ri Kim, from Inje University said in the news release.
"This is early stage research with a small number of participants, but it's hugely exciting to see the potential this treatment could have. We need much larger trials, on more diverse populations, before we can start to make a difference to how patients are treated," Treasure said.
