Ohio: A new study has found that people who take paracetamol, the most widely used pain reliever in the world, change their thinking and lose their sense of danger.
In a study of 500 students at Ohio State University in the United States, half of the students were given 1,000 mg of paracetamol, while the other half were given the same amount of paracetamol.
Shortly afterwards, all the volunteer students were asked to play a computer game in which as many balloons as possible were inflated (on the computer) in such a way that they would bloom but not explode. In the next stage, a questionnaire was put in front of all these people in which after presenting various hypothetical scenarios, they were asked what they would do in such a situation.
Most of the students who ate real paracetamol burst more balloons while playing computer games, while students who did not take paracetamol inflated the balloons cautiously and thus their balloons burst less.
Similarly, while taking the questionnaire, the students who took paracetamol chose the risky options while the other group of students chose the cautious options.
The results of this study showed that students who took paracetamol had a lower level of fear than other students, which prevented them from realizing the potential danger associated with any work.
Research on paracetamol over the past few years has shown that this common painkiller reduces people’s ability to feel emotions, makes them more ruthless, and makes them more resilient. It also reduces the ability to learn things.
The study, published in the latest issue of the research journal Social Cognitive and Effective Neuroscience, is one such link.