A hormone released during childbirth and sex could be used as a treatment for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, reports [s]BBC News[/s]. Small studies by UK and Korean scientists indicated patients were less likely to fixate on food and body image after a dose of [b]oxytocin[/b]. Oxytocin reduces sufferers’ unhealthy obsessions with food and weight and makes them less fixated on damaging emotions, researchers in the UK and South Korea found. A spray of the chemical could be used as a treatment in two or three years if larger trials succeed and it is hoped it would help patients understand the need to eat more, raising odds of recovery. There are no drugs to treat the life-threatening disorder, whose sufferers try to be as thin as possible by drastically limiting food and undertaking extreme exercise. In severe cases, counselling is often of little benefit because the brain is so undernourished. [b]Prof Youl-Ri Kim[/b], from [b]Inje University[/b] in Seoul, South Korea and lead author on both studies, said: 'Our research shows that oxytocin reduces patients' unconscious tendencies to focus on food, body shape, and negative emotions such as disgust.'
[link url=http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26543427]Full BBC News report [/link]
[link url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0090721]Full Plos One study[/link]
[link url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453014000705]Pschoneuroendocrinology abstract[/link]