A Similar Role for Dopamine in Drug Addiction and Romantic Love? We Still Don’t Know! - The Diversity of Love JournalThe Diversity of Love Journal

Written by Sandra J. E. Langeslag.

When you google “dopamine and love”, you’ll find numerous popular media articles about the presumed link between the two. You’ll also find articles about how love is similar to drug addiction, with lovers being addicted to their beloved. But what do we really know about the link between dopamine and love? And what about the similarities between romantic love and drug addiction?

What Is Dopamine?

You have probably heard about the neurotransmitter dopamine in the context of drug addiction. Dopamine (and other neurotransmitters such as serotonin and glutamate) allows neurons to communicate with each other. Dopamine is produced in the ventral tegmental area in the brainstem; see the figure below. From there, it is spread to other brain regions such as the nucleus accumbens (deep in the brain) and the frontal cortex (behind your forehead). These brain regions with high dopamine levels together form the dopaminergic reward system.

Dopamine Makes People Want Something

The release of dopamine in the brain causes the feeling of wanting something, such as food, water, sex, or money. Wanting is the same as desire or craving. The feeling of wanting motivates us to pursue the thing (Berridge & Robinson, 1998). Examples of this motivation are us preparing food when we are hungry, spending money on a bottle of water when we are thirsty, flirting with someone when we are sexually interested in them, and doing the work that will get us our salary.

When people repeatedly use a drug that increases dopamine levels in the brain (such as nicotine, stimulants, or opioids), their dopaminergic reward system changes. This altered dopamine signaling causes the drug users to experience extreme wanting for the drug. This extreme wanting causes them to become highly motivated to pursue their drug. This motivation can even become so strong that people engage in criminal activities, such as theft, violence, and murder, to obtain their drug.

Lovers Want Their Beloved

People who are in love also seem to want (or crave) their beloved one. For example, they think about their beloved a lot (Langeslag & Philippi, 2025; Nilakantan et al., 2014), they want to spend much time together, and they may change their behavior, appearance, career, country, or religion to be with their beloved (Aron & Aron, 1997). And sometimes romantic love is even associated with criminal behavior such as stalking, domestic violence, murder, and suicide. I am unaware of any published studies that have measured wanting or craving in people who are in love, but this parallel between romantic love and addiction has sparked speculation about the involvement of dopamine in romantic love.

Why It Is Difficult for Scientists to Study the Role of Dopamine in Romantic Love

Most of our knowledge about the role of dopamine in drug addiction comes from animal research. Since many animals mate, they must experience some form of sexual desire. Some animals form pair bonds, so those animals seem to experience some form of attachment or companionate love as well.

But romantic love (i.e., the early-stage love that is associated with butterflies in the stomach and euphoria, also called passionate love) does not seem associated with a certain behavior in animals. Therefore, it is difficult to determine if and when animals experience romantic love. Instead, we need to study romantic love in humans.

Humans can just tell us whether they are in love or can complete a love questionnaire. However, measuring dopamine levels in the brain is invasive. It involves inserting an electrode or cannula into the brain, for example, or even studying brains outside of the body. Therefore, we don’t have a lot of scientific data on the role of dopamine in romantic love.

Dopamine-Rich Brain Regions Are Activated by Viewing the Beloved

Researchers have conducted several studies on romantic love using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). This is a research technique that shows which brain regions are active by measuring which brain regions receive oxygen-rich blood.

These fMRI studies have shown that some brain regions with high dopamine levels are more active when people view pictures of their beloved than when they view pictures of other people (Acevedo et al., 2012; Aron et al., 2005; Bartels & Zeki, 2000; Fisher et al., 2010; Langeslag et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2011; Younger et al., 2010). Examples of these brain regions are the ventral tegmental area (in the brainstem) and the caudate and putamen (both deep in the brain).

Researchers have interpreted these findings as evidence that romantic love is associated with high dopamine levels. But because the fMRI method cannot measure dopamine levels, these studies do not prove that dopamine is released in these brain regions when people see their beloved.

Some Researchers Have Been Able to Measure Dopamine in Lovers

One research group has been able to measure dopamine in people who were in love. They used a method called positron emission tomography (PET). This research technique involves injecting a radioactive substance into the blood that attaches to dopamine receptors on neurons in the brain. This radioactive substance is displaced when actual dopamine is released by the neurons. Measuring the amount of the radioactive substance in the different brain regions then gives researchers an idea of how much dopamine was released in each brain region.

The study (Takahashi et al., 2015) showed that certain brain regions released more dopamine when people viewed pictures of their beloved than when they viewed pictures of friends. This release of dopamine happened in the medial orbitofrontal and prefrontal cortices (both behind your forehead).

Surprisingly, the researchers did not observe dopamine release in the other typical dopaminergic regions deep in the brain and in the brainstem (the ventral tegmental area, the caudate, and the putamen) that were activated by viewing the beloved in previous fMRI studies. Therefore, we still do not know if dopamine is released in the brain regions that make up the dopaminergic reward system when people see their beloved.

What Do We Know and What Do We Not Know Yet

So far, we know that dopamine makes people want things such as food and drugs. It seems like people want their beloved, but this phenomenon has not really been studied yet. We do know that dopamine-rich brain regions are activated by the sight of the beloved, but we don’t know whether dopamine is released in those regions when people see their beloved. No studies have directly compared romantic love and drug addiction, so we don’t know how they compare in terms of craving, brain activation, and dopamine release.

Thus, we can see that much of what is written in popular media about the link between dopamine and love, and how that may be similar to the link between dopamine and drug addiction, is more speculation than scientifically proven. Even writers of some scientific articles have written about the role of dopamine in romantic love and its similarity with drug addiction more hypothetically than factually (Langeslag, 2024). In reality, much more research is needed to determine the role of dopamine in romantic love and how it is similar and/or different from the role of dopamine in drug addiction.