Brain Releases Natural Pain Killers due to Social Rejection

Finding that the opioid system can act to ease social pain, not just physical pain, may aid understanding of depression and social anxiety.

A recent study shows that the opioid system can help ease social pain and play a role in aiding the understanding of depression and social anxiety.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School found that the brain's natural painkiller system responds to social rejection and not just physical injury.
People who also score high on personality traits such as resilience had the highest amount of natural painkiller activation.

Researchers from U-M's Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute used an innovative approach to work on findings that combined advanced brain scans and tracked chemcial release in the brain via a model of social rejection based on online dating. 

The study authors focused on the mu-opioid receptor system in the brain and its response to physical pain. David T. Hsu, Ph.D., the lead author of the new paper, says the new research on social rejection grew out of recent studies by others, which suggests that the brain pathways that are activated during physical pain and social pain are similar.

"This is the first study to peer into the human brain to show that the opioid system is activated during social rejection," said Hsu, a research assistant professor of psychiatry, via a press release. "In general, opioids have been known to be released during social distress and isolation in animals, but where this occurs in the human brain has not been shown until now." 

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Molecular Psychiatry.