Tuesday, September 08, 2020

A pain reliever that alters perceptions of risk

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/osu-apr090520.php

News Release 8-Sep-2020
Ohio State University

While acetaminophen is helping you deal with your headache, it may also be making you more willing to take risks, a new study suggests.

People who took acetaminophen rated activities like "bungee jumping off a tall bridge" and "speaking your mind about an unpopular issue in a meeting at work" as less risky than people who took a placebo, researchers found.

Use of the drug also led people to take more risks in an experiment where they could earn rewards by inflating a virtual balloon on a computer: Sometimes they went too far and the balloon popped.

"Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities - they just don't feel as scared," said Baldwin Way, co-author of the study and associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

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