According to the Daily Telegraph of October 13, passions triggered by the early flushes of a relationship block physical pain in a similar way to painkillers¹ and drugs, a study has shown。

Scientists in the US tested the theory on 15 male and female university students who were in the passionate² early stages of a love affair。

They were shown photos of their partners while a computer-controlled heat probe placed in the palms of their hands delivered mild doses of pain. At the same time, the students had their brains scanned by a functional³ magnetic resonance⁴ (FMRI) imaging machine。

The study showed that feelings of love, triggered by seeing a photo of one's beloved, acted as a powerful pain killer. Focusing on a photo of an attractive acquaintance rather than a relationship partner did not have the same benefit。

Dr Sean Mackey, the study leader and head of the Division of Pain Management at Stanford University Medical Center in California, said: "When people are in this passionate, all-consuming phase of love, there are significant alterations⁵ in their mood that are impacting their experience of pain。

"We intentionally⁶ focused on this early phase of passionate love," said Dr Mackey, "We wanted subjects who were feeling euphoric, energetic, obsessively⁷ thinking about their beloved, craving⁸ their presence. When passionate love is described like this, it in some ways sounds like an addiction⁹. We thought, 'maybe this does involve similar brain systems as those involved in addictions¹⁰ which are heavily dopamine-related'."

Dopamine is one of a family of brain chemicals that transmit signals between neurons. It is at the heart of the brain's "reward" system – helping¹¹ us to "feel good" when enjoying pleasurable experiences. Dopamine pathways are closely associated with addiction and the deep-level pain relief induced by morphine and other opioid drugs。

The study also found that word-association distraction¹² tasks also reduced pain but in a different way。

据《每日电讯报》10月13 日报道，一项研究表明，由爱情早期产生的激情可以像止疼药和毒品一样，抑制人们身体上的疼痛。

美国科学家对15位正处于热恋早期的男生和女生进行此项理论的研究。

参加实验者的手掌上被安置一个计算机控制的探热仪向手掌传送轻微的疼痛，同时，他们还要看一张他们恋人的照片。实验过程中，科学家使用功能磁共振成像机对学生的大脑进行扫描。

研究显示，通过观看恋人照片产生爱的感觉产生的止疼作用就和止疼药一样。研究还发现，如果观看的是一个熟悉有吸引力的人的照片，而这个人不是恋人的话，也不能产生一样止疼作用。

加利福尼亚州的斯坦福大学医学中心疼痛管理处主任、本研究负责人西恩•麦基说：“当人们处于充满激情的热恋阶段，即 ‘爱情消耗阶段’，他们的情绪会产生强烈的变化，这种变化会大大影响他们对疼痛的体验。”

麦基博士说：“我们对人们热恋早期阶段特别地关注，我们需要的被研究者是心情愉悦、精力充沛、对爱情痴迷而且强烈渴望表达自我的人。如果爱情被描述成这样，它们在某种程度上就像让人上瘾的毒品一样。我们认为，‘爱情止疼和止疼药一样涉及相同的脑系统，他们和大脑内多巴胺联系密切。”

多巴胺属于大脑化学物质家族的一员，它们传递神经元之间的信号。多巴胺处于大脑“奖励系统”的中心，当我们体验愉悦的经验时，帮助我们获得良好感觉。多巴胺和成瘾密切联系，所以吗啡和其他阿片药物可以缓解重度疼痛。

研究还发现， “文字分心”方式也可以减轻疼痛，不过方式与“爱情减痛法”不同。