‘Love hormone’ may help treat alcoholism

WASHINGTON: A nasal spray of ‘love hormone’ oxytocin may help treat alcohol use disorder, according to a study conducted in mice. Oxytocin plays a role in social bonding, sexual reproduction, childbirth, and the period after childbirth.
The study, published in ‘PLOS Biology’, found that oxytocin blocks enhanced drinking in alcohol-dependent rats. Targeting the oxytocin system may provide novel pharmaceutical interventions for the treatment of alcohol-use disorder, said researchers from the National Institutes of Health and The Scripps Research Institute in the US.
Administering oxytocin can decrease consumption, withdrawal symptoms, and drug-seeking behaviour associated with several drugs of abuse, researchers said. This shows promise as a pharmacological approach to treat drug addiction, they said.
Targeting this system, possibly by intranasal administration, could prove a promising therapy in people who misuse alcohol, they said.