How to Fail the First SPI: Just Take Tylenol
A new study recently showed that taking acetaminophen reduces empathy compared to placebo. 114 college students were split into two groups (placebo and acetaminophen 1000 mg) and then asked questions about hypothetical characters. In general, Tylenol reduced people's empathy for pain. The exact mechanism of action of the drug is unknown however it is proposed to reduce prostaglandins in the brain. Because prostaglandins have such a wide variety of action, it is safe to assume action in the brain contributes to both the analgesic properties as well as the antipyretic properties. Originally it was hypothesized that acetaminophen is more sensitive to COX-3 than other COX's as COX-3 resides in the brain. However, that theory has not gained traction and recently there has been conjecture acetaminophen has some sort of COX inhibition in the presence of endogenous hydroperoxide compounds. Acetaminophen reduces the psychological activity and reduces activity to pain, specifically with the anterior insula.
As for the empathetic mechanism, acetaminophen showed reducing activation in some of the brain areas related to emotional awareness and motivation. Acetaminophen showed to reduce personal pleasure as well as empathy when reading passages about uplifting people. The scenarios were: a man proposes to his girlfriend, a man is happy that a woman he is interested in has agreed to a date, a woman gets a raise at her job, and a woman's father comes to her music performance. The students rated the scenario if they had a positive experience reading this. The score ranged from -5 (very negative) to 5 (very positive). Apparently written passages are a common way to test empathy. However, this data set cannot be trusted as the students were at Ohio State University and they typically have lower empathy anyways.
A new study recently showed that taking acetaminophen reduces empathy compared to placebo. 114 college students were split into two groups (placebo and acetaminophen 1000 mg) and then asked questions about hypothetical characters. In general, Tylenol reduced people's empathy for pain. The exact mechanism of action of the drug is unknown however it is proposed to reduce prostaglandins in the brain. Because prostaglandins have such a wide variety of action, it is safe to assume action in the brain contributes to both the analgesic properties as well as the antipyretic properties. Originally it was hypothesized that acetaminophen is more sensitive to COX-3 than other COX's as COX-3 resides in the brain. However, that theory has not gained traction and recently there has been conjecture acetaminophen has some sort of COX inhibition in the presence of endogenous hydroperoxide compounds. Acetaminophen reduces the psychological activity and reduces activity to pain, specifically with the anterior insula.
As for the empathetic mechanism, acetaminophen showed reducing activation in some of the brain areas related to emotional awareness and motivation. Acetaminophen showed to reduce personal pleasure as well as empathy when reading passages about uplifting people. The scenarios were: a man proposes to his girlfriend, a man is happy that a woman he is interested in has agreed to a date, a woman gets a raise at her job, and a woman's father comes to her music performance. The students rated the scenario if they had a positive experience reading this. The score ranged from -5 (very negative) to 5 (very positive). Apparently written passages are a common way to test empathy. However, this data set cannot be trusted as the students were at Ohio State University and they typically have lower empathy anyways.
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