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In 2013 Canadian psychologists reached interesting results: people who were given paracetamol were asked to write several sentences about their own death. It turned out that they were less affected by negative feelings and anxiety than the control sample that received a placebo.
As if the drug, besides its pain-relieving effect, also mitigated negative emotions. A team of scientists from Ohio University developed this hypothesis further and their results have now been published in the journal Psychological Science.
A drug for the brain?
For the first experiment the scientists used 82 people: half were given 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 all participants were shown 40 photographs from the IAPS (International Affective Picture System) photo bank, starting with the saddest ones, depicting for example crying or malnourished children, through neutral ones to very pleasant ones.
The control sample who received the placebo and those who received paracetamol were to rate each photograph from the worst (–5) to the best (+5) and on a scale from zero to ten indicate the extent to which the photograph evoked an emotional reaction in them.
The results showed that the experimental subjects 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 also emerged that the joyful photographs aroused less joy in them.
As if paracetamol reduced all emotions, suppressing not only suffering but also joy. The paracetamol group admitted that they felt fewer emotions overall.
Do we know what we eat?
As the French newspaper Le Monde notes, this is the first time such a side effect of paracetamol has been described, 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 be viewed as a means of „relief“ from emotions. It remains to find out by what mechanism this occurs, how paracetamol affects our emotional reactions. Such clarification is all the more necessary because this drug is so widespread.
Death on the tongue?
In their study the scientists raised the possibility that paracetamol’s action is related to the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is involved in the transmission and control of pain and is known to play a role in our mood.
The scientists also intend to continue research into other painkillers that are chemically different but nearly as widely used, such as ibuprofen or aspirin.
