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New extensive study showed that the effects of paracetamol on the brain are unexpected and very intense.
Paracetamol is, under various names (here Paralen, Panadol or Coldrex), the best-selling drug. In America this ingredient is even contained in more than 600 medicines and it is estimated that Americans take one of them each week.
It is precisely this widespread global consumption of this preparation that prompted scientists to examine more closely how paracetamol acts, beyond easing pain and reducing fever.
In 2013 Canadian psychologists reached interesting results: people who received paracetamol were asked to write a few sentences about their own death.
It turned out that they were less affected by negative feelings and anxieties than the control group who received a placebo.
How the drug, besides relieving pain, also reduces negative emotions.
Scientists from Ohio University developed this hypothesis further and published their results in the journal Psychological Science.
Medicine for the brain?
For the first experiment the scientists used 82 people: they gave half one gram of paracetamol and the other half a placebo without their knowledge. They waited an hour for the drug to reach the brain.
Then they presented all participants with 40 photographs from the IAPS photo bank (International Affective Picture System), starting with the saddest ones depicting, for example, crying or malnourished children, through the neutral ones to very pleasant ones.
Both the control group who received the placebo and those who received paracetamol had to rate each photograph with scores from the worst (-5) to the best (+5) and on a scale from zero to ten indicate to what extent the photographs elicited emotional reactions in them.
The results showed that the participants who were given paracetamol were, compared with those who received the placebo, less affected by negative feelings when looking at the saddest photographs. At the same time it turned out that the joyful photographs elicited less joy in them.
AS IF PARACETAMOL reduced ALL EMOTIONS, suppressing NOT ONLY SUFFERING BUT ALSO JOY.
The paracetamol group reported feeling fewer emotions.
Do we know what we eat?
As the French newspaper Le Monde reports, this is the first time a side effect of paracetamol has been described in this way, which according to the study’s lead author Geoffrey Durso may have a broader range of effects than previously thought.
Besides pain relief, paracetamol can thus also be used as a means to relieve negative emotions.
Death on the tongue?
In their study the scientists suggested that the action of paracetamol is related to the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is involved in the transmission and control of pain and plays a large role in our mood.
The scientists also intend to continue researching other painkillers that are chemically different but are used almost as widely, such as ibuprofen or aspirin.
