A love pill that replicates the feeling of being in love and that it could be prescribed to try to save marriages in complex situations could exist “within three and five years”, according to an academic from the University of Oxford.
During the Science Festival in Cheltenham, England, Dr. Anna Machin, evolutionary anthropologist and author of “Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships” , exposed that there are four chemicals in the brain that explain love: oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine and beta endorphin.
According to the expert, a pill that accumulates these four hormonal substances could “improve your abilities to find love or to increase the chance that you will fall in love when the situation is complicated”.
The effects of substances
Dopamine, also called as the hormone of pleasure, It is a neurotransmitter that delivers the feeling of well-being. Oxytocin, on the other hand, is a hormone that is related to sexual patterns, self-confidence and disinhibition.
Serotonin, meanwhile, plays an important role in regulating mood and emotions.. Finally, beta endorphin is a hormone that blocks the sensation of pain and works like an opiate, that is, it has addictive effects.
The ethical dilemmas of the “love pill”
The scientist considers that currently there is enough knowledge about neurochemistry and the brain enough to be able to prescribe this type of pill during a treatment. However, Machin is aware that behind this idea there is an ethical dilemma: “One of the frontiers of commercial love research is the exploration of possible love drugs: can you imagine how much money it would make?” .
“There are a lot of ethical questions about love drugs, which are certainly on the horizon. And research is certainly being done on them. Love drugs used in couples therapy could be available within three to five years”added the academic.
In front of those present, he also wondered: “You won’t give these pills to all the people you like, right?”
The beta enfordina, behind the marital failure
Among the four neurotransmitters mentioned above, beta endorphin is the least studied and therefore the most unknown. The anthropologist suggests that the lack of this hormone is one of the main causes of marital breakdown.
“The beta endorphin is an opiate. It’s made by the body and, like heroin, it’s addictive,” he said.
Therefore, when the source of the drug, in this case a loved one, disappears, then the person enters a state of withdrawal: “That’s the reason why, when you are abandoned, you feel horrible, because you’re going into opiate withdrawal,” he added.
“Obviously, if you get dumped, you don’t have a slow withdrawal and that’s why it’s so incredibly painful physiologically and psychologically when a relationship ends that way,” Machin explained.
A love pill that replicates the feeling of being in love and that it could be prescribed to try to save marriages in complex situations could exist “within three and five years”, according to an academic from the University of Oxford.
During the Science Festival in Cheltenham, England, Dr. Anna Machin, evolutionary anthropologist and author of “Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships” , exposed that there are four chemicals in the brain that explain love: oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine and beta endorphin.
According to the expert, a pill that accumulates these four hormonal substances could “improve your abilities to find love or to increase the chance that you will fall in love when the situation is complicated”.
The effects of substances
Dopamine, also called as the hormone of pleasure, It is a neurotransmitter that delivers the feeling of well-being. Oxytocin, on the other hand, is a hormone that is related to sexual patterns, self-confidence and disinhibition.
Serotonin, meanwhile, plays an important role in regulating mood and emotions.. Finally, beta endorphin is a hormone that blocks the sensation of pain and works like an opiate, that is, it has addictive effects.
The ethical dilemmas of the “love pill”
The scientist considers that currently there is enough knowledge about neurochemistry and the brain enough to be able to prescribe this type of pill during a treatment. However, Machin is aware that behind this idea there is an ethical dilemma: “One of the frontiers of commercial love research is the exploration of possible love drugs: can you imagine how much money it would make?” .
“There are a lot of ethical questions about love drugs, which are certainly on the horizon. And research is certainly being done on them. Love drugs used in couples therapy could be available within three to five years”added the academic.
In front of those present, he also wondered: “You won’t give these pills to all the people you like, right?”
The beta enfordina, behind the marital failure
Among the four neurotransmitters mentioned above, beta endorphin is the least studied and therefore the most unknown. The anthropologist suggests that the lack of this hormone is one of the main causes of marital breakdown.
“The beta endorphin is an opiate. It’s made by the body and, like heroin, it’s addictive,” he said.
Therefore, when the source of the drug, in this case a loved one, disappears, then the person enters a state of withdrawal: “That’s the reason why, when you are abandoned, you feel horrible, because you’re going into opiate withdrawal,” he added.
“Obviously, if you get dumped, you don’t have a slow withdrawal and that’s why it’s so incredibly painful physiologically and psychologically when a relationship ends that way,” Machin explained.
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