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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
For the non-North-Americans, it's referring to Paracetamol.
Strangely, ibuprofen and aspirin have the same names, but aceominophen/paracetamol doesn't.