Pain relievers change emotions and can make you less empathetic. The discovery of a series of studies.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousPain relievers change emotions and can make you less empathetic. Paracetamol and ibuprofen in particular relieve various pains and headaches, but they can affect the way people respond to certain feelings, especially those of "pain".
This was revealed by a review of a series of studies from the University of California, according to which, especially women who take over-the-counter drugs such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, may report less painful feelings from emotionally trying experiences. The reverse was found in men, for whom emotions seemed to be heightened by taking those certain medications.
Surveys have shown that over-the-counter pain relievers can affect how people process information and how people respond to emotional images. This makes them less sensitive in some contexts and beyond: paracetamol and ibuprofen would also affect the ability to empathize with the pain of others.
Over the course of the experiments, women who took a dose of ibuprofen saw a reduction in the pain of emotionally painful experiences, such as being treated unfairly, excluded, or betrayed in a game. A dose of paracetamol, on the other hand, compared to a placebo pill, would be able to reduce empathy for the pain, physical and psychological of others. In practice, paracetamol makes you "colder" than the sight of another person suffering.
With one dose of ibuprofen, then, women reported "less hurt feelings" from emotionally painful experiences, while men showed the opposite pattern.
The researchers also found that the pills affect the ability to empathize with the pain of others: Compared to those taking placebos, people who took a dose of acetaminophen were less emotionally stressed while reading about a person. that they were experiencing physical or emotional pain and felt less respect for the person.
“In many ways, the results of the review are alarming. Consumers assume that when they take an over-the-counter pain medication it alleviates their physical symptoms, but they don't take into account the wider psychological effects, ”explains Kyle Ratner, a psychologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
The researchers concluded that one might think that such a discovery could have new potential to help the most depressed people cope with hurt feelings. Pain relievers for depression? Calm and leaden feet. Studies and experiments are still to be done, the researchers say, and as for a topic as sensitive as depression, here is some advice on how to get help in the meantime.
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- Interaction between foods and drugs: the foods to avoid for each medicine
Germana Carillo