Let me preface this by letting you know… I’m addicted to Excedrin. Like really addicted. I get migraines already, and growing up Excedrin was the best way to relieve them. Now? I get them if I don’t take it. I know, I know, acetaminophen has so many harmful effects, but honestly, it never really bothered me as long as I was functioning without a migraine.
However – this little article out of Huffington Post today is making me worry a bit about that Excedrin addiction. This article talks about a study out of Pub Med that suggests acetaminophen can, well, suppress your emotions and put you in a drugged state of mind – to put it politely. Geoffrey Durso, the lead author on the study and a doctoral student in social psychology at The Ohio State University wrote to the Huffington Post “this means that using Tylenol or similar products might have broader consequences than previously thought. Acetaminophen can be seen as an all-purpose emotion reliever.”
The researchers found this by gathering a small study of 82 college students who took either 1,000 mg of acetaminophen or a placebo. Then they had the students look at pleasant photos (cats, kids, fun stuff) and unpleasant photos (poverty, malnourished kids, not fun stuff), then some neutral photos (cows?) Once the students looked at the photos, they expressed how positive or negative that experience was on a 1 through ten scale. Then students who were drugged rated both the unpleasant and pleasant photos less extremely than those who took the placebo.
So honestly, this is beginning to answer so many questions. I’ve never really been one for emotions – I always choked that up to my unnaturally dry tear sockets and my indifference towards the world – but now I know better. So now the million dollar question… Do I want to be emotional, or no?
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