Apr 5 (ANI): A study conducted by researchers at University of Sydney in Australia has revealed that ‘love drug’ ecstasy causes a brain surge of oxytocin, which is the hormone that helps bond couples, as well as mothers to their babies.

Earlier research found increased oxytocin in the blood of people, who had taken ecstasy, but many drugs increase the hormone in blood, without raising it in the brain.

Iain McGregor at the University of Sydney in Australia, and his colleagues studied the effects of the love drug in rats, which, like people, become more companionable on the drug.

“It’s very characteristic behaviour. They lie next to each other and chill out,” New Scientist quoted McGregor, as saying.

The team gave the rats the equivalent of two to three ecstasy tablets in an adult human and found that the drug triggered oxytocin-containing neurons in the hypothalamus area of their brains. When they gave the rats a drug that blocked brain receptors for oxytocin, the increased sociability nearly vanished.

“Why it didn’t disappear entirely isn’t clear. It could be that the dose of the receptor blocker was too low, or that other brain chemicals, such as dopamine, are also involved in triggering the sociable behaviour,” McGregor said.

McGregor points out that rodent studies have shown a massive rush of oxytocin after orgasm in males.

“It’s interesting that guys on ecstasy feel more sensual than sexual. It could be that raising oxytocin levels puts them in that sort of post-orgasmic state where they’re actually not very good at performing sexually but they feel really good about the person they’re with,” McGregor said.

McGregor’s team now plan to examine the levels of oxytocin in rats’ brains after they are given MDMA and also to see the parts of the brain that are affected by the drug.

They believe that the oxytocin release might be concerned not only in the pro-social effects of ecstasy but also to analyse the reinforcing effects.

“There is much research to be done on how drugs of abuse affect oxytocin in the brain, What we know at the moment could be written on the back of a postage stamp,” McGregor said. (ANI)