Love in an Addiction by Journal of Neurophysiology,

Romantic love is an addiction, according to a new study. Ever wondered why some people pine over their lost love for long? Scientists say it is because romantic rejection triggers the same effect on brain akin to kicking an addiction.

Romantic rejection causes a profound sense of loss. It can induce clinical depression and in extreme cases lead to suicide and/or homicide. To study how the brain works after a romantic break-up, researchers from New York scanned the brains of 15 college-aged volunteers (10 women and 5 men) who had all recently experienced a break up, but were still in love with the person who had rejected them. The average length of the relationship was about two years, and about two months had passed since the relationship ended. In the experiment, participants brain scans were done while they were shown images of their former lovers and asked to recall memories of their time together. As a comparison, their brain activity was also measured when they looked at neutral images of acquaintances.

It was found that when shown pictures of a former loved one, the brain showed activity in the brain areas associated with motivation and reward. When confronted with photos of those who had broken up with them, the participants’ brains also showed activity in regions typically associated with intense addiction to cocaine and addiction to cigarettes.

All participants scored high on the "Passionate Love Scale" - a questionnaire psychologists use to measure the intensity of romantic feelings. Participants also said they spent more than 85 per cent of their waking hours thinking about their rejecter.

The study, the first to examine the brains of heartbroken people, found that thinking of their former partners activated their brain region associated with addiction cravings, control of emotions, feelings of attachment and physical pain and distress. The results provide an insight into why it might be hard for some people to get over a break up and why some people even take extreme steps like committing suicide or murder.

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