When it comes to pain, the Beatles may have been on to something when they said, "All you need is love."

That is because a new study has suggested that amorous feelings for a loved one might actually provide comfort when the body is subjected to pain. According the findings, feelings of love are an effective source of pain relief, similar in effect to drugs like painkillers and even cocaine.

Intense feelings of love can profoundly affect a person's mood and influence the brain's system for rewards. This involves the compound dopamine, which is responsible for affecting moods, emotions, and motivation.

The current data represents an early stage for this sort of research, so at this time it is difficult to make any conclusive statements about love's ability to ameliorate pain, nor is it appropriate to indicate that love can take the place of standard pain relief regimens.

However, scientists are hoping that the research will help them to gain a better understanding of the brain's reward system that are connected to feelings of love so that they may be able to study and design more effective methods of alleviating pain.

As it turns out, when we have strong feelings of love, it targets the same regions of the brain that are affected by pain relief medication and certain illicit drugs like cocaine. They are also the same pleasure centers that come to life when big events occur in our lives, like winning a lot of money.

In order to study this phenomenon in detail, researchers enrolled college students who were in the first nine months of a relationship. In other words, they were still basking in the glow of the honeymoon phase of being a couple, that initial period characterized by intense feelings of love. These are the same feelings of euphoria that are often described in the context of addiction, and both sensations are directly linked to the release of dopamine.

The subjects were asked to bring along a photographs of their loved ones as well as pictures of an acquaintance whom they considered attractive. The images were displayed on a screen while they were subjected to a mild level of pain. During this time, their brain responses were being measured by way of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

After accounting for the presence of distractions, which are also known to reduce pain, the researchers observed that love and distraction were both effective in lessening the pain, more so than when looking at an attractive friend, and yet utilized different neural pathways.

While distractions seemed to affect cognitive aspects of the brain, love involved the more primitive regions involved with rewards, the same areas that opioid painkillers target. When this region is affected, the brain tells the body that it wants more.

Regardless of the findings, most people would agree that life can be more pleasant and enjoyable when it is shared with someone we love, especially in the early stages of a relationship, and even in lieu of the complications that it can often create.