title: The behavioral, anatomical and pharmacological parallels between social attachment, love and addiction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Love has long been referred to as an addiction in literature and poetry. Scientists have often made comparisons between social attachment processes and drug addiction, and it has been suggested that the two may share a common neurobiological mechanism. Brain systems that evolved to govern attachments between parents and children and between monogamous partners may be the targets of drugs of abuse and serve as the basis for addiction processes.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Here, we review research on drug addiction in parallel with research on social attachments, including parent-offspring attachments and social bonds between mating partners. This review focuses on the brain regions and neurochemicals with the greatest overlap between addiction and attachment and, in particular, the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant overlap exists between these two behavioral processes. In addition to conceptual overlap in symptomatology, there is a strong commonality between the two domains regarding the roles and sites of action of DA, opioids, and corticotropin-releasing factor. The neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin are hypothesized to integrate social information into attachment processes that is not present in drug addiction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social attachment may be understood as a behavioral addiction, whereby the subject becomes addicted to another individual and the cues that predict social reward. Understandings from both fields may enlighten future research on addiction and attachment processes.
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Division of Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychiatric Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA. james.p.burkett@gmail.com
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Burkett
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D009769:Object Attachment; D010152:Pair Bond; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012201:Reward; D012919:Social Behavior; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine