'Love hormone' may help treat alcoholism

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,  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 in a statement.

This shows promise as a pharmacological approach to treat drug addiction, they said.

Researchers tested the hypothesis that oxytocin administration could normalise the maladaptive brain changes that occur in alcohol dependence and thereby reduce alcohol drinking in an established rat model of alcohol dependence.

They investigated oxytocin's effects on dependence-induced alcohol consumption and altered signalling of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) -- a key brain region in the network affected by alcohol dependence.

The experiments demonstrated that oxytocin administered systemically, intranasally or into the brain blocked excess drinking in alcohol-dependent but not in normal rats.

Moreover, oxytocin blocked GABA signalling in the CeA, researchers said.

Taken together, these results provide evidence that oxytocin likely blocks enhanced drinking by altering CeA GABA transmission.

These results provide evidence that aberrations in the oxytocin system may underlie alcohol use disorder, researchers said.

Targeting this system, possibly by intra-nasal administration, could prove a promising therapy in people who misuse alcohol, they said.

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Being shy can make you more anxious during hangover

If you are a very shy kind of person, you are more likely to suffer from "hangxiety", an anxiety during a hangover, as compared to your extrovert friends as per a new study.

The study showed that, among the participants, drinking about six units of alcohol slightly decreased anxiety in highly shy people. But the next day, this slight relaxation was replaced by a significant increase in anxiety, a state of "hangxiety" among the shy drinkers.

The research team also found a strong link between this "hangxiety" and higher scores on the AUDIT test which is used to identify alcohol use disorder (AUD) in highly shy people.

"We know that many people drink to ease anxiety felt in social situations, but this research suggests that this might have rebound consequences the next day, with more shy individuals more likely to experience this, sometimes debilitating, aspect of hangover," said  the co-author. 

"These findings also suggest that "hangxiety" in turn might be linked to people's chance of developing a problem with alcohol," she added.

For the study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the team analysed almost 100 social drinkers with either high or low levels of shyness.

The baseline measures of shyness, social phobia and AUD were taken, and anxiety levels were tested again during the evening and the following morning.

"It's about accepting being shy or an introvert. This might help transition people away from heavy alcohol use. It's a positive trait. It's OK to be quiet," she noted.

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