Oxytocin, Eating and Satisfaction

A new study showed that women with the eating disorder anorexia had higher levels of antibodies that act against oxytocin, as well as vasopressin and alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone,  a hormone involved in appetite control. The report in WebMD is sketchy and a bit confusing.

In this study, researchers found elevated levels of antibodies against two more hormones found in the brain known as vasopressin and oxytocin in women with and without eating disorders. These hormones are primarily involved in water balance as well as social interactions.

Women with anorexia had significantly higher levels of antibodies against these three hormones than women with bulimia or healthy women.

However, some people without eating disorders also have high levels of the antibodies.

Serguei O. Fetissov, lead author of the study, is  a member of the department of neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, as is Kristin Uvnas Moberg, author of  The Oxytocin Factor and one of the earliest researchers to study oxytocin.