While there's no genetic basis for anorexia nervosa, psychiatrists say there may be a chemical treatment - oxytocin, the 'love hormone'.  

Anorexia nervosa affects up to 1 in 150 teenage girls, primarily middle class and white, in the UK. Though often a phase, it can cause mental health related deaths due to physical complications and sometimes suicide. 

People with anorexia often have social difficulties, including anxiety and hypersensitivity to negative emotions.  Oxytocin is a hormone released naturally during bonding, including sex, childbirth and breastfeeding. As a synthesized product, it has been tested as a treatment for many psychiatric disorders, and some have claimed benefits in lowering social anxiety in people with autism. 

The new paper found that oxytocin alters anorexic patients' tendencies to fixate on images of high calorie foods and larger body shape. The findings follow an earlier study by the same group showing that oxytocin changed patients' responses to angry and disgusted faces. 










