This Popular Painkiller is Proven to Dull Human Empathy and Joy

‘One of the most common over-the-counter drugs used to reduce pain may also be decreasing your ability to be empathetic. Moreover, it may also stifle the magnitude of positive emotions such as joy.
A study out of Ohio State University has found that participants who took acetaminophen were less empathetic when they learned about the misfortunes of others. Acetaminophen is the common ingredient in Tylenol and is also present in hundreds of other medicines, both over-the-counter and prescription, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA).
A substantial body of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research suggests that observing others experiencing pain, activates brain regions that are also activated during one’s own experience of pain. Therefore, the study’s researchers, Dominik Mischkowski, Baldwin Way and Jennifer Crocker, wanted to understand if something that reduced one’s pain also affects how one perceives others who are experiencing pain.’
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