Can you get a prescription for love?
It looks that way, according to a group of neuroethnicists from Oxford University.
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Their research, "Neuroenhancement of Love and Marriage: The Chemicals Between Us," suggests that love - on a biological level- is simply a mix of neurohormones. Identify those neurohormones, and find the right balance, and you could influence the biological path of love.
"Underlying human love is a set of basic brain systems for lust, romantic attraction and attachment that have evolved among mammals. Lust promotes mating with any appropriate partner, attraction makes us choose and prefer a particular partner, and attachment allows pairs to cooperate and stay together until their parental duties have been completed," the researchers write.
Modulation of love
The researchers propose a pill that contains five types of drugs that would chemically modify a person's thinking of attraction and attachment.
Pheromones
These are chemicals that trigger behavior responses, mainly sexual and attractiveness, between the opposite sex.
Oxytocin and Vasopressin
Also known as the ‘bonding chemicals', oxytocin and vasaopressin are hormones released in the body that promote physical bonding.
Testosterone
High levels of testosterone increase the amount of sexual desire between the opposite sex.
CRH
Although this hormone (corticotropin-releasing hormone) can sometimes cause depression and anxiety, it also creates the fear of separation, which can help deepen the bond between two people.
Entactogens
This drug (found in MDMA pills like ecstasy) creates the feeling of openness and the desire for emotional closeness, claims the paper. This could increase the connection and sociability between people if it was present in a pill.
"Evolution has not created us to be happy, but rather created happiness to keep us alive and reproducing.
But from our human perspective our—and our loved ones'—happiness and flourishing are the primary
Goals," the research states.
Change relationships socially, not chemically
The researchers point out one object to the "love pill" is the argument that relationships between people should be changed, not the people themselves. Also, they warn that a pill could be considered a "cheat, a short cut that will render life meaningless."