London – It is in millions of medicine cabinets for day-to-day relief from pain.
But paracetamol may also reduce our ability to feel pleasure or sadness, a study found.
Researchers discovered that, after taking the painkiller, people’s emotional responses were not as strong.
‘Using (paracetamol) products might have broader consequences than previously thought,’ said researcher Geoffrey Durso.
‘Rather than just being a pain reliever, acetaminophen (paracetamol) can be seen as an all-purpose emotion reliever.’
The study gave half its participants 1,000mg of paracetamol – about the same as two tablets – and the other half a placebo, before showing them a series of very pleasant and very disturbing photographs.
Those who had taken paracetamol showed a weaker emotional response than those who had taken the dummy tablet. The researchers added that those who took the paracetamol didn’t appear to know they were behaving any differently.
Professor Baldwin Way, a researcher from The Ohio State University, said: ‘People who took [paracetamol] didn’t feel the same highs or lows as did the people who took placebos.’
For the study, published in journal Psychological Science, 82 men and women viewed 40 photographs after being given tablets.
These had been selected from a database used by researchers around the world to elicit emotional responses and ranged from extremely unpleasant – crying, malnourished children – to neutral, such as a cow in a field, and very pleasant, including young children playing with cats. After looking at each picture the participants were asked to rate how positive or negative they thought it was, on a scale.
They then viewed the same photos again and were asked to rate how much the photo made them feel an emotional reaction, from 0 for little or no emotion to ten for an extreme amount of emotion.
Those who had taken the paracetamol rated all the photos as less emotionally extreme.
The team is now planning to carry out a study to find out if other pain relievers, such as ibuprofen and aspirin, have the same effect.
Daily Mail