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Tylenol May Kill Kindness (washingtonpost.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader randomErr writes: In research published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience scientists describe the results of two experiments conducted involving more than 200 college students.Their conclusion is that acetaminophen can reduce a person's capacity to empathize with another person's pain. "We don't know why acetaminophen is having these effects, but it is concerning," senior author Baldwin Way, an Ohio State University psychologist, said. One of the studies has half the group consume a liquid with acetaminophen while the other group received a placebo. The group that drink the acetaminophen thought that people they read about experiencing pain was not as severe as the placebo group thought.
The Washington Post notes that acetaminophen is the most common drug ingredient in the United States, adding that "about a quarter of all Americans take acetaminophen every week."
The Washington Post notes that acetaminophen is the most common drug ingredient in the United States, adding that "about a quarter of all Americans take acetaminophen every week."
I mean, the medicine alters your brain's perception of pain. Makes sense that it could, by proximity of function, alter your brain's perception of other people's pain.
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
Hope the military aren't looking into this side effect.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
This active ingredient is used by multiple manufacturers and highlighting a trade name and not the active ingredient the study was conducted on is bad practices.
If Tylenol does shit for it, it's not a migraine.
For the non-North-Americans, it's referring to Paracetamol.
Strangely, ibuprofen and aspirin have the same names, but aceominophen/paracetamol doesn't.
Well there was that one time.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Exactly. Tylenol does exactly *nothing* for migraines. One of the worst migraines I have ever had was when I was on the nominal dose of Vicodin, which is like super-Tylenol with a mild opiate.
Aspirin and caffeine (anacin or Excedrin {which has tylenol as a "filler" as far as I can tell}) is the only thing that you can get over-the-counter that is likely to have an positive effect on migraines.
Given that scientists still don't know how acetaminophen works to relieve pain is it any surprise it could affect more than just the pain receptors?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
The article says: "A substantial body of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research suggests that observing others experiencing pain (e.g. observing a person receiving a hot probe placed on the hand), activates brain regions that are also activated during one’s own experience of pain..."
I think most of us have experienced the "wince reaction" when we someone else take a hit.
My kids called this "sympathy pain" when they were little.
What interests me about this study is I wonder what effect acetaminophen would have on me, since it has no apparent effect on pain. I've spoken with others who also indicate acetaminophen is useless against pain.
The "sympathy pain" phenomenon leads to other questions...
If a painkiller can block it, and if the observation of a painful event triggers a measurable reaction in the subject's brain, are endorphins released?
If endorphins are released can this help explain why games like ice hockey and American football are so popular?
Comparing Tylenol against placebo is a start, but until it's compared against other pain relievers we won't know if the effects are specific to the drug or a generalized response to pain relievers in general.
Over the years I've tried Tylenol for physical bumps and bruises and it has never seemed to work. Does it work for anyone? Aspirin and Ibuprofen both seem pretty effective, but Tylenol is like taking a sugar pill.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Actually paracetamol (acetaminophen for Americans) is effective against migraines but only in about 10% of people. The rule I was always told was that then you feel a migraine coming on - aura start etc. - you take paracetamol but if a migraine has already started ibuprofen is better. This seems to work most of the time for me.
However, in both cases these are mild pain relievers and while they work for my migraines which are not particularly severe for more severe cases, like those my dad used to sometimes have, more powerful medications are required. In the UK you can also get paracetamol with added codeine tablets over the counter (in limited numbers and dosages since codeine is mildly addictive) and I find this often works particularly well taken at the start of a migraine.
"The group that drink the acetaminophen thought that people they read about experiencing pain was not as severe as the placebo group thought."
If you can unscramble this, you're good. Slashdot "editors"--- great work!
Is it just painkilling meds doing this?
Is this result ALSO seen to any degree with say, aspirin, ibuprofen, etc?
That's the real question.
-Styopa
Pain and particularly headaches. They should also compare with tylenol and pain together, and pain alone. I am betting they will find out while tylenol MAY have an effect, not using it will also have a strong negative effect....
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
You feel FOR other's pain.
You get an emotional reaction AS IF you're being hurt - minus the pain.
And even that is if you're REALLY susceptible to empathy. Most cases you just feel a bit sad.
Otherwise, doctors in hospitals would be dead from shock in a few days from all the pain they'd empathize with.
Similarly, we don't get carted out of theaters on a stretcher after watching a comedy surrounded by other people and their happiness.
It's a psychological study.
It's a safe bet that it is either bullshit or overblown bullshit.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
They were warning about the enemy within. We never thought it would become in the form of a sack of shit disguised as a bag of semi-sentient Cheetos.
If someone had written this as a way for space aliens to destroy the human race, it would have been laughed at. But look at that thing Trump calls hair - lots of tendrils going into the head - perfect for mind control :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Don't try and make it much more complicated than that either. Using is a choice, it was always a choice. Not an easy choice, but until the choice is made, 'help' is pointless.
I don't know what to do with the pavlovian, end stage, almost automatons. Giving them a pass, because 'addiction', isn't part of the plan.
I think the current wave of analogs from China plus local chemical knowledge will bring about de facto legalization. But the system will convulse for decades first and junkies will be dying in droves due to inconsistent strength. Eventually a (sitting congresscritter/SC/federal judge/Governor/First Lady/President) will OD, and they won't be able to cover it up. Then maybe, good old fashioned 'wholesome' Heroin will be decriminalized.
The first real hardcore, longtime, junkies I knew as a kid was a DuPont grandchild and his scumbag entourage. Rich junkies are the worst. Run away.
I'm so lucky cocaine makes me feel like I got hit by a truck...cause everybody likes opiates. I'm saving mine for impending death time, nothing would suck more than dying without painkillers. The opium poppy is 'god's gift to the dying', junkies are just opting into 'dying' early.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Foote was diagnosed with cancer in April 2004, and returned to Edmonton for treatment at the Cross Cancer Institute. But the disease had taken a firm grip, and he died one month later, leaving behind a will which left only a tiny fraction of his $220 million US estate to his family. (Anne got an annuity, the children got $100,000 each, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.)
The bulk of his fortune was left to the Edmonton Community Foundation and The Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund in Melbourne, Australia.
Bentley, his longtime friend, was executor of the will. He believes Foote had given his children what they really needed — which was not his vast fortune.
"He felt that if he gave his children an education and money to buy a house and left them a small amount in his will that that was enough," he said. "If they're educated they can make a living."
The family didn't see it that way. Anne and five of his children filed suit in what became a long and bitter challenge of the will, which also directed her to move out of Foot Nort within two years.
The justice hearing the case in Alberta Court of Queen's Bench called the will "mean spirited" noting that it "essentially disinherited his immediate family."
But despite that, the challenge failed in 2009
Sounds like a Hallmark Movie-of-the-Week.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Couldn't say, really. But it sure explains the problem with my mother...
Judging by how the republicans are acting recently, they're finally realizing they too lost the election.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Sounds reasonable to me.
When I would take Excedrin (which has acetaminophen) I would get this lovey type feeling.
Maybe it acts like other drugs and reduces the ability of those lovey sections of the brain from working as well.
I am not a lovey guy but I am not about to jump to the conclusion is was all the Excedrin I was taking but I always worried a bit that I may have overdid it because of its affects on the liver. Now I have one more thing to dissuade me from using it.
A brand name makes better clickbait, which is all the only thing EditorDavid posts..
Pain is an absolutely essential component of the information you get from your environment. It's a required part of complete cognitive process.
In case you missed most of reality (mass surveillance, stupefying media, federally mandated false education, economic disparity (bubbles, crashes, depressions), etc.), most of society exists to control you. The medical industry is no exception. It exists not to help you achieve your potential through good health, but to CONTROL you, keeping you healthy enough to work but too unhealthy to compete against higher status people.
By cutting out much of the stimulation and motivation that small pains provide, people are kept apathetic, stupid, and weak.
Your aching joints are telling you to stop being a lazy sack, your cuts, scrapes, and burns are trying to increase your coordination, and your headache is telling you order your life to reduce stress.
As if ANYONE couldn't tell this with common sense, as if this doesn't occur to every single doctor, as if this isn't on the mind of the doctors who devise medical protocols.
Of course it's intentional.
Just because you don't know what to do about it doesn't mean you have an excuse to ignore it.
"Not so bad huh? Here's some highlights from last week's rehabilitation ... And who could forget that wonderful finish by rehab officer Tylenol Jones! And tomorrow night looks even more better! Word is that Beef Supreme himself might come out of retirement!"
-- Formica Davis
>"Their conclusion is that acetaminophen can reduce a person's capacity to empathize with another person's pain."
I find that ironic because it seems acetaminophen doesn't do anything at all to alleviate my pain, ever. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, works great. Perhaps many of the test volunteers were still IN PAIN when using acetaminophen and so they can't think of others at the time (pain is, unfortunately, very good at bringing focus to itself).
Swearing is an effective painkiller.
And yeah, this is serious, there is peer-reviewed research and all that stuff.
As a side note, I too suffer from severe headaches. What I have found that works for me is to eat foods highly spiced with cayenne pepper. The reason cayenne works is that the active ingredient in cayenne is capsicum which is a natural pain reliever. Not a single over-the-counter or prescription medicine has ever worked for me, but cayenne does. I can have a really bad headache and within 15 minutes of eating highly spiced foods the headache is gone. Works every time for me.
There are more peppers than cayenne peppers that work for me. Habeneros work. Also, what ever pepper is found in authentic Thai cooking works really well too. So, if you like spicy foods you might try eating some next time you feel a migraine coming on. May not work for you like it does for me, but cayenne/hot_peppers do not have the same isses all NSAIDs do. Other than the burning sensation, which in time you get used to and actually develop a taste for, the peppers are side-effect free.
This also works for me on arthritis pain too. The days my knees are so bad that I can barely walk I eat a spicy meal and in no time at all my pain levels are reduced 90% or so. I go from hobbling to walking in less than a half hour.
"while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." de Tocqueville
Didn't someone show that US college students are pretty much the worst subjects to do any testing on?
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Tylenol is an American brand name for what they call Acetaminophen but is Paracetamol in the UK
It's such a great painkiller that you can't even feel someone else's! I see the basis for a new marketing campaign.
I just had Tylenol and now I'm going to vote everyone's posts down on this topic.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch