Tylenol Tablets (Photo : Facebook )
The main ingredient of Tylenol can help to treat bad headaches and sore muscles but the drug can also provide a surprising side-effect based on a new study. Not only can the painkiller reduce physical aches and pain in people who take the tablet or capsule but can also affect their sense of empathy. Researchers learned the medicine affects how well they can feel other people's pain.
Results of the study were published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affect Neuroscience.
Acetaminophen is the pain reliever found in Tylenol and similar over the counter (OTC) drugs. Past research has focused on the medication's psychological effects. However, the latest one was different.
Co-author Dominik Mischkowski is a former doctorate student at Ohio State University and now works at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He explained that the new study focused on the social effects of the drug.
Mischkowsk's research team performed a series of experiments. They tested acetaminophen's effects on the subjects' ability to sense other people's pain.
NIH's first experiment included 80 college studnets. The experimental group received a liquid with acetaminophen equal to two extra strength Tylenol tablets, according to CBS News. Meanwhile, the other group received a solution without the pain-killing drug.
Volunteers were then required to read eight short stories about people who suffered a type of pain. One example was about the death of a person's family member or other loved one.
The participants were asked to rate the pain of each person on a scale of 1 to 5. The results showed that the acetaminophen group rated the people's pain as less serious than the control group.
Meanwhile, the second social experiment included 114 college students. Half of the subjects drank the acetaminophen solution and the other half drank a placebo.
The two groups were blasted with white noise close to the decibel levels of a motorcycle or train whistle, for two to four seconds. Results showed that the acetaminophen group rated the loud sounds as less unpleasant. That was for themselves and other people.
These new findings support results from a 2004 study. It discovered that part of the brain that is activated when people feel pain is the same region that is triggered when they picture another person feeling that same pain, according to CNN.
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