I think a lot about the overdoses from opiates and this leads me to review a number of areas of medicine. When I mention the overdose problem, I remind people that it is not due to prescription drugs. Prescription drugs almost never, on their own, cause death. Over 80% of deaths are now caused by street drugs.
That introduction is a direct segue to speak about, of all things, Tylenol, also known as generic acetaminophen.
In reviewing the alternatives to opiates and their, advantages and disadvantages. I became aware that Tylenol has two interesting downsides having to do with the management of our emotions:
1-It decreases our empathy for others.
2-it has been shown that it can increase impulsivity.
I want to focus on the diminished empathy it causes and split that into our ability to empathize with someone’s positive experience and empathize with someone’s negative experience, pain, and suffering. This study focuses on the positive experience.
The study shows that when people are confronted with someone else’s positive experience they have a reduced positive empathetic response when they are given 1000 mg of acetaminophen compared to a placebo. Tylenol does also diminish empathy for pain.
This is a rather astounding finding that we should pay attention to. There are some 600 medications that contain acetaminophen. About one in four people take some acetaminophen every week. I have chronic leg pain and over the last couple of months, I have started taking at least 1000 mg a day and monitoring my response to some emotional situations.
We need to be reminded that many opiate pain medicines are combined with acetaminophen.
I am attaching a good article about the opiate system and emotion. Based on that article it looks like much more research needs to be done however the conclusion is that opiates tend to be prosocial although from what I could get from the article, not always.
“In general, opioid agonists strengthen approach‐oriented emotions.”
The first article that I reference above and the first noted below corroborates what I was thinking about when it occurred to me to write this. And that is we may, and probably are sabotaging a lot of our community and joy from many possible sources by taking acetaminophen. And remember there are 600 drugs with acetaminophen and we are just discovering the emotional aspects of many drugs.
Just think about the cumulative effect even if one in four people takes only 1000 mg of acetaminophen several times a week. And are possibly taking it, subconsciously, at times, in order to reduce feelings. I am not saying whether we should take acetaminophen for pain or not. I am just pointing out the facts. Many alternatives to opiates have their own problems. We are all trying to figure this out.
What do you think I would enjoy some discussion of this?
Thanks for reading.