Risks of painkillers
07/07/16 04:33
When I was still a graduate student, I explored the possibility of specializing in some form of counseling ministry. At the time, I was serving as an intern at the Wholistic Health Care Center and working on qualifying for membership in the American Academy of Marriage and Family Counselors. My supervisor was handing me a wide variety of counseling cases to give me a broad experience and the center had an excellent format for clinical supervision and feedback. It was in those days that I started reading the abstracts of psychological and psychiatric studies. I was seeking to keep up with a rapidly changing profession.
My life took a different course and after I completed my second year with the center, I never again worked as a professional counselor. I still do a fair amount of pastoral counseling, but I am quick to refer people to counselors when I feel that their needs require any form of intensive therapy. The habit of reading the abstracts of studies, however has remained. As a professional member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, I receive access to a large database of psychological and psychiatric studies.
The other day a study at The Ohio State University caught my eye. Researchers have found evidence that acetaminophen not only dulls physical pain, it also reduces our ability to predict pain in others and empathize. If the results of this study can be confirmed and replicated, it has potential for adding to our understanding of how our brains work.
Acetaminophen is marked under the brand name Tylenol in the U.S. but it is contained in hundreds of medicines that are sold over the counter and as prescriptions. Despite some risks of liver damage, it is still considered to be a very safe drug when administered according to label recommendations. And, for many people, it works.
Researchers theorized that the same area of the brain that responds to physical pain might also respond to psychological pain. This theory was born out by a study conducted by a team from the University of Kentucky. Another study by Ohio State University researchers found that acetaminophen reduced people’s evaluation and response to both negative and positive stimuli. This lead those researchers to design the current study. In the study 80 participants were either given a liquid containing 1,000 milligrams of acetaminophen or a placebo solution with no drug. One hour later the participants were given scenarios to read. The stories included characters who were subjected to pain such as a knife wound or losing a loved one. The participants then rated the physical and emotional pain experienced by the characters. The team found that the individuals who had consumed acetaminophen rated the pain of the characters in the story as less severe. This part of the study was followed up by two additional double-blind studies that rated the empathy of participants.
It is important to note that this is just one study and that much more research will be needed before conclusions can be drawn about the causation of the decrease in empathy, but it makes some sense that if one’s pain is dulled, so also might be one’s ability to sense the pain of others. And, if follow-up studies demonstrate consistent results, it seems obvious that studies of other pain medications might show similar results.
The potential ramifications of the study are significant. What if pain medications decrease our ability to empathize with others? What if treating our own pain makes us less compassionate toward the pain of others? We live in a pain adverse society. We are quick to reach for medication to dull pain that previous generations simply endured. I’m no fan of pain and I understand why people seek treatment for their pain. I certainly do not want my loved ones to suffer unnecessarily. But just as I am cautious about the trade-offs that come with pain killers such as drowsiness and how those effects can limit one’s relationships with others, it seems to follow that too much pain medication might become a major barrier in our ability to give and receive love.
Mind you, the evidence is not yet clear. Drawing these conclusions is premature. Still, reading the abstract got me to thinking about the choices we make.
We’ve known for some times that pain can be an effective teacher. Numerous studies have demonstrated that it is not as effective as a teacher as reward, but nonetheless people do learn from the experience of pain. Furthermore, pain can be a good signal to people to disengage from practices that are causing harm. If we were to lose our ability to experience pain, the result would likely be an increase in injury and in the severity of injuries simply because we might become unaware that we are being injured until after the injury has already occurred. There is also some evidence that using medication to treat main can, in some cases, suppress the natural pain controlling mechanisms of our bodies. The more pain medications we take, the more are required to achieve the desired effect. Addiction to pain medications is a major problem for millions of people.
The study, it seems, at least encourages me to display a bit more caution in my choices about the use of medications. After all, my job - and my life - is based on a healthy dose of compassion for others. I don’t want to avoid the places of pain, but rather to go directly to those places to aid those who are suffering. I want to become sensitive to the pain of others so that I can intervene in positive ways to reduce suffering.
As I age I discover that I experience some pain that I don’t remember from younger phases of my life. I develop muscle stiffness a bit more easily and it persists a bit longer. I sometimes have unexplained joint pain. I’ve been advised by medical professionals that taking pain medication on a regular basis might be a good idea.
For now, however, I choose to feel a bit more of my own pain if for no other reason that it reminds me that I am alive and a part of a world where others experience pain that is far deeper and more severe than I have known.
My life took a different course and after I completed my second year with the center, I never again worked as a professional counselor. I still do a fair amount of pastoral counseling, but I am quick to refer people to counselors when I feel that their needs require any form of intensive therapy. The habit of reading the abstracts of studies, however has remained. As a professional member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, I receive access to a large database of psychological and psychiatric studies.
The other day a study at The Ohio State University caught my eye. Researchers have found evidence that acetaminophen not only dulls physical pain, it also reduces our ability to predict pain in others and empathize. If the results of this study can be confirmed and replicated, it has potential for adding to our understanding of how our brains work.
Acetaminophen is marked under the brand name Tylenol in the U.S. but it is contained in hundreds of medicines that are sold over the counter and as prescriptions. Despite some risks of liver damage, it is still considered to be a very safe drug when administered according to label recommendations. And, for many people, it works.
Researchers theorized that the same area of the brain that responds to physical pain might also respond to psychological pain. This theory was born out by a study conducted by a team from the University of Kentucky. Another study by Ohio State University researchers found that acetaminophen reduced people’s evaluation and response to both negative and positive stimuli. This lead those researchers to design the current study. In the study 80 participants were either given a liquid containing 1,000 milligrams of acetaminophen or a placebo solution with no drug. One hour later the participants were given scenarios to read. The stories included characters who were subjected to pain such as a knife wound or losing a loved one. The participants then rated the physical and emotional pain experienced by the characters. The team found that the individuals who had consumed acetaminophen rated the pain of the characters in the story as less severe. This part of the study was followed up by two additional double-blind studies that rated the empathy of participants.
It is important to note that this is just one study and that much more research will be needed before conclusions can be drawn about the causation of the decrease in empathy, but it makes some sense that if one’s pain is dulled, so also might be one’s ability to sense the pain of others. And, if follow-up studies demonstrate consistent results, it seems obvious that studies of other pain medications might show similar results.
The potential ramifications of the study are significant. What if pain medications decrease our ability to empathize with others? What if treating our own pain makes us less compassionate toward the pain of others? We live in a pain adverse society. We are quick to reach for medication to dull pain that previous generations simply endured. I’m no fan of pain and I understand why people seek treatment for their pain. I certainly do not want my loved ones to suffer unnecessarily. But just as I am cautious about the trade-offs that come with pain killers such as drowsiness and how those effects can limit one’s relationships with others, it seems to follow that too much pain medication might become a major barrier in our ability to give and receive love.
Mind you, the evidence is not yet clear. Drawing these conclusions is premature. Still, reading the abstract got me to thinking about the choices we make.
We’ve known for some times that pain can be an effective teacher. Numerous studies have demonstrated that it is not as effective as a teacher as reward, but nonetheless people do learn from the experience of pain. Furthermore, pain can be a good signal to people to disengage from practices that are causing harm. If we were to lose our ability to experience pain, the result would likely be an increase in injury and in the severity of injuries simply because we might become unaware that we are being injured until after the injury has already occurred. There is also some evidence that using medication to treat main can, in some cases, suppress the natural pain controlling mechanisms of our bodies. The more pain medications we take, the more are required to achieve the desired effect. Addiction to pain medications is a major problem for millions of people.
The study, it seems, at least encourages me to display a bit more caution in my choices about the use of medications. After all, my job - and my life - is based on a healthy dose of compassion for others. I don’t want to avoid the places of pain, but rather to go directly to those places to aid those who are suffering. I want to become sensitive to the pain of others so that I can intervene in positive ways to reduce suffering.
As I age I discover that I experience some pain that I don’t remember from younger phases of my life. I develop muscle stiffness a bit more easily and it persists a bit longer. I sometimes have unexplained joint pain. I’ve been advised by medical professionals that taking pain medication on a regular basis might be a good idea.
For now, however, I choose to feel a bit more of my own pain if for no other reason that it reminds me that I am alive and a part of a world where others experience pain that is far deeper and more severe than I have known.