The Paracetamol Papers

I have secretly obtained a large cache of files from Johnson& Johnson, makers of TYLENOL ®, the ubiquitous pain relief medication (generic name: acetaminophen in North America,paracetamol elsewhere). The damaging information contained in these documents has been suppressed by the pharmaceutical giant, for reasons that will become obvious in a moment.1After a massive upload of materials to Wikileaks, it can now be revealed that Tylenol not only...eases social rejectionmends a broken heartlessens mortality salience(i.e., fear of death)reduces antisocial behaviortreats chronic anxiety disorder...but along with the good comes the bad. Acetaminophen (paracetamol) also has ghastly negative effects that tear at the very fabric of society. These OTC tablets...change how people process informationblunt positive emotions2kill empathy for other people ’s physical and emotional painkill empathy for other people ’s joycause rude behavior on Twitter3In a 2018 review of the literature,Ratner and colleagues warned:“In many ways, the reviewed findings are alarming. Consumers assume that when they take an over-the-counter pain medication, it will relieve their physical symptoms, but they do not anticipate broader psychological effects.”In the latest installment of this alarmist saga, we learn that acetaminophen blunts positive empathy, i.e. the capacity to appreciate and identify with the positive emotions of others (Mischkowski et al., 2019). I ' ll discuss those findings another...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs