Is addiction to love a real addiction?

Abstract

Love addiction is a controversial and highly debatedcondition and, even today, not recognized by DSM-5 as aspecific diagnosis, although there is enough literature tosupport its characterization as an addictive disorder. Loveaddiction, also called pathological love, can be defined as apattern of behavior characterized by a maladaptive,pervasive, and excessive interest towards one or moreromantic partners, resulting in lack of control, renounce ofother interests, and other negative consequences. Thisfocused review uses the evidence from recent studies tocompare the neural alterations in romantic love and drugaddiction; moreover, we also compare the behavioralalterations in romantic love and drug addiction. From thebehavioral comparisons, we found that there are manysimilarities between the early stage of romantic love anddrug addiction, and this stage of romantic love isconsidered a behavioral addiction. At the same time,significant differences exist between the later stage ofromantic love and drug addiction, and this stage ofromantic love eventually develops into prosocial behavior.The diagnosis and management of love addiction may be acontroversial but promising area of research.