connection, and this has been supported by recent evidence showing that naloxone administration, an opioid blocker, results in a decreased feeling of social connection in healthy individuals. Recent work also demonstrates that attachment dimensions have bearing on natural opioid signaling, with brain scans showing that those high in attachment avoidance have decreased opioid receptor availability. In clinical samples insecure attachment is related to higher opioid use in chronic pain patients and higher analgesic consumption during labor. In a study of young adult females, drug use was one of several risky behaviours that occurred more frequently in those with insecure attachment along with unsafe driving and sexual practices. Sex Risky sexual behaviour is defined as sexual contact with an increased risk of either unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection. In a study aimed at evaluating the evidence supporting six major risky sex theories, Leslie Simons and her colleagues found that only the social support and attachment theory had strong empirical support. In the attachment theory model, risk is enhanced in insecurely attached individuals due to negative working models of relationships, reduced closeness in intimate relationships and through decreased self-control. In terms of conscious motivations for sex, attachment anxiety is related to many attachment-related motivations including using sex for desire for emotional closeness, reassurance, self-esteem enhancement, stress reduction, the experience and exertion of power, elicitation of caregiving from a partner, protection from a partner's anger or bad moods. Those high in attachment avoidance report using sex for power or partner manipulation and endorse a desire to use sex as a way of avoiding emotional closeness. Accordingly, there is evidence that attachment avoidance is associated with positive attitudes towards casual sex, a higher number of casual sex partners, and an interest in emotionless sex and one-night stands. Treatment adherence Attachment insecurity also plays an important role in how people follow the advice of the healthcare community. Attachment avoidance has consistently been linked to poorer treatment adherence and more recently to no shows in scheduled follow up appointments. Attachment avoidance has also been linked to lower rates of cervical cancer screening in both American and Iranian populations. Healthcare utilization Attachment theory predicts that people high in attachment avoidance and people high in attachment anxiety would display different utilization of health care resources based on their prototypical behavioural responses when stressed. The theory predicts that people high in attachment avoidance, when faced with an illness,