Painkillers are feelingkillers

Two new experiments suggest that acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol, Nyquil and Robitussin to name a few—makes us less sympathetic to others’ pain. In the first experiment, half of the participants were given 1,000 mg of acetaminophen, the other half a placebo. Both groups were asked to read a scenario with a person in pain, and rate that person’s pain on a scale of 1 to 10. In a second experiment, participants were asked to rank how painful a loud sound was to them, as well as to other participants. In both experiments, the group that took acetaminophen rated things as less painful for not just themselves but also others. In other words, the drug was numbing not just people's pain but also their feelings. The researchers based the study on a 2004 neurological experiment, which found that the same part of the brain is responsible for experiencing pain and empathizing with others' pain. Acetaminophen is the most common painkiller in the US. One quarter of American adults use it weekly. It’s also dangerous. About 150 people die annually overdosing on acetaminophen just in the US. Ibuprofen has a much lower incidence of overdose, but has also been found to dull the feelings of people who use it. Oddly, a University of Texas study found that ibuprofen made women feel better about emotional trauma, while it made men feel worse. As a regular user of ibuprofen, or as I fondly call it "Vitamin I," this news is making me feel really terrible.