A new research has claimed that a brain chemical known as 'love hormone' could be a potential treatment for anorexia nervosa - an eating disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. The research - conducted by British and Korean scientists - found oxytocin played a vital role in reducing unconscious tendencies of patients to focus on food, body shape, and negative emotions.

Youl-Ri Kim, a professor at Inje University in Seoul, South Korea, said the results of their study are incredibly positive for development of a novel treatment for patients with anorexia.

Victims of anorexia nervosa develop unhealthy obsessions with diet and it is mostly found in girls and women. About one in 150 teenage girls is affected by the disorder in the UK, where it is one of the major causes of mental health-related deaths because of physical complications and suicide.

In addition to problems with food, eating and body shape, anorexia patients also suffer social problems like anxiety and hypersensitivity to negative emotions.

However, oxytocin has been discovered as a potential treatment for patients with anorexia, said Janet Treasure, a professor at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry.

Oxytocin is produced naturally in the body during sex, childbirth and breastfeeding. The hormone has also been proved beneficial by some studies for lowering social anxiety in people with autism.

The research included 31 patients with anorexia and 33 healthy control group members who were given either oxytocin or a placebo. Some images related to weight, high and low calorie foods, and fat and thin body shapes were shown to participants before and after giving either oxytocin or a placebo. The concept behind this study was to see the tendency of participants to focus on negative images, because if the tendency is higher for negative images, they would identify them more rapidly.

The group of participants on anorexia showed reduced focus on images of food and fat bodies. In the second phase of the study, the same participants were tested for reactions to facial expressions such as either oxytocin or a placebo after and before taking either the same drug or a placebo.

The patients with anorexia on oxytocin showed much reduced focus on the disgust faces.