The parallels between passionate love and drug addiction

Research has only recently begun to investigate the neural circuitry of love in an attempt to further understand human emotion, cognition, and behavior. The present study explores the parallel between passionate love and drug addiction. Two hundred and twenty-five California State University, Los Angeles students completed a relationship questionnaire where demographic data, romantic love history, and beliefs and opinions about love were collected. Results from the study show that mean overall passion scores were highest for first loves with past first loves being thought of twice as often as past second loves providing evidence for obsessive thinking and tolerance. Moreover, results also show that mean scores on the subscales were all relatively high indicating similar cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and physiological sequelae for passionate love and drug addiction. The items endorsed by participants indicate an overlap with the reward and pleasure pathway of the brain and suggest that love is addictive