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Dear Coilers, how many of you use Acetaminophen (Paracetamol)? How many of you use it frequently?

Are you aware that it can affect your decision making?

Recent studies say that the world’s most common painkiller induces risky behaviour!

Paracetamol increases risk-taking, according to a new study that measured changes in people's behaviour when under the influence of it.

“Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don't feel as scared” says neuroscientist Baldwin Way from The Ohio State University.

“With nearly 25 percent of the population in the US taking acetaminophen each week, reduced risk perceptions and increased risk-taking could have important effects on society.”

https://academic.oup.com/scan/advance-article/doi/10.1093/scan/nsaa108/5897711

The findings add to a recent body of research suggesting that acetaminophen's effects on pain reduction also extend to various psychological processes, lowering people's receptivity to hurt feelings, experiencing reduced empathy, and even blunting cognitive functions.

https://news.osu.edu/when-you-take-acetaminophen-you-dont-feel-others-pain-as-much/

In a series of experiments involving over 500 university students as participants, Dr. Way and his team measured how a single 1,000 mg dose of acetaminophen (the recommended maximum adult single dosage) randomly assigned to participants affected their risk-taking behaviour, compared against placebos randomly given to a control group.

In the task, participants click a button to inflate a balloon on their computer screen. Each time they inflate it they receive virtual money. They can stop at any time and add the money to their “bank,” and move on to the next balloon. But there is risk involved.

“As you’re pumping the balloon, it is getting bigger and bigger on your computer screen, and you’re earning more money with each pump,” Way said.

“But as it gets bigger you have this decision to make: Should I keep pumping and see if I can make more money, knowing that if it bursts I lose the money I had made with that balloon?”

For those who took the acetaminophen, the answer was: “Keep on pumping!” Results showed that those on the drug pumped more times than those on the placebo and had more burst balloons.

“If you’re risk-averse, you may pump a few times and then decide to cash out because you don’t want the balloon to burst and lose your money,”

“But for those who are on acetaminophen, as the balloon gets bigger, we believe they have less anxiety and less negative emotion about how big the balloon is getting and the possibility of it bursting.”

Overall, however, based on an average of results across the various tests, the team concludes that there is a significant relationship between taking acetaminophen and choosing more risk, even if the observed effect can be slight.

“Exploring such psychological alternative explanations for this phenomenon – as well as investigating the biological mechanisms responsible for acetaminophen's effects on people's choices in situations like this – should be addressed in future research”, the team says.

Acetaminophen and COVID

Despite the seriousness of those findings, acetaminophen nonetheless remains one of the most used medications in the world, considered an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation, and recommended by the CDC as the primary drug you should probably take to ease symptoms if you think you might have coronavirus.

BUT

“Perhaps someone with mild COVID-19 symptoms may not think it is as risky to leave their house and meet with people if they're taking acetaminophen”, Way says.

“We really need more research on the effects of acetaminophen and other over-the-counter drugs on the choices and risks we take.”

Investing “On Paracetamol”

Now tell me, have you ever invested when under the influence of Acetaminophen?

Have you ever “played” a game of trading, trying to scalp in crypto exchanges waiting to make a dollar or two more just for the sake of “feeling good”?

Have you ever lost some funds due to taking too high risk?

The implications of the impact of Acetaminophen on your decision making can be significant! Think twice before you trade after you relief a headache. Maybe you should rather take a nap.

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