The ‘Love Hormone’ May Have a Dark Side

A new study shows oxytocin and alcohol may have some similar effects on the brain. (Photo: Getty Images/John Grant)

Cuddle up to your S.O. in bed, nurse your baby, hold hands with your partner, and your body will start to release a chemical called oxytocin. You probably know it as “the love hormone” — it plays a role in everything from sex and bonding to emotions and trust. And ever since research suggested that oxytocin can make us more trusting toward other people, it’s basked in the limelight as a good-for-you brain chemical. But is there more to this “happy” hormone than its nickname suggests? According to a new study from University of Birmingham researchers, the way oxytocin influences us is comparable to the effects of alcohol.

Researchers culled multiple studies that looked at how both oxytocin administered nasally (yep, that’s a thing!) and booze affected the brain. The results? The two worked in similar ways, affecting brain signaling that controls how we perceive stress and anxiety, particularly in social scenarios.

Think about it this way: Just as liquor can give you courage, so, too, can a little bit of love, the study suggests.

“​Both alcohol and oxytocin reduce anxiety. Oxytocin does this to promote social interactions, by signaling that the person in front of us is safe or trustworthy,” Paul Zak, PhD, founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, who was not involved in the new study, tells Yahoo Health. “Alcohol does this more generally, but can also promote social interactions — though it could ​reduce their quality.”

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And while that may not seem like such a bad side effect, the researchers of this new study say that both booze and oxytocin can increase feelings of aggression, envy, and even favoritism. They also suggest that by skewing a sense of fear and trust, both could promote risk-taking.

But Zak is quick to point out that many studies showing such results were done in mice — and thatthe distribution of oxytocin receptors in mice and humans is markedly different. “The results are unlikely to directly carry over to humans,” he says. “We do ‘social accounting’ and keep track of whether those around us are treating us nice or poorly; mice don’t do this as far as we can tell.” Another important distinction: Alcohol can be addictive, he says.

Plus, the researchers looked at studies that “infused” oxytocin nasally — which is not a natural release of the hormone. “There are very few negative effects when we study the brain’s own release of oxytocin: It makes people more trustworthy, generous, charitable, and happy,” Zak says, noting that it does not make people jealous, mean, or selfish.

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Infusion, on the other hand, does ​make us more sensitive to social information, he says. “Natural release is going to be appropriate for your height and weight in a very small dose,” Belisa Vranich, PsyD, a clinical psychologist, tells Yahoo Health.

But comparing alcohol and oxytocin is like taking cocaine and comparing it to the brain’s synthesis of dopamine, says Zak. “Cocaine’s increase of dopamine is much more than what the brain makes. For oxytocin, the brain’s own synthesis is graded in the amount of release and targeting to particular brain regions,” he explains. “Infusion is perhaps 1,000 times more than what the brain makes — and it hits all areas of the brain rather than being targeted.”

So what’s the bottom line? In its natural dose, oxytocin is an integral (and positive) part of our lives, Vranich says. But new research surrounding the love hormone — and its other effects — is nonetheless fascinating. (It’s also frankly a bit freaky, too, if you consider something like nasal oxytocin replacing booze as a social drug some day). There are plenty of variables at play, as well, that make studying the hormone in its natural state difficult. “Neurotransmitters all affect each other — and we don’t know every single way they affect each other,” says Vranich. Everything from where you are on your cycle (for women) to how much testosterone is floating around in your body (for men) can impact how oxytocin impacts you, she says.

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