# Lounge > Science and Technology >  >  Physical pain and social rejection share a neural process

## Equinox

> The active drug in Tylenol, acetaminophen, is one of the best medications we have for helping people in pain. It's also one the most commonly overdosed substances in the world and puts about 60,000 Americans in the hospital every year. Several hundred people in the U.S. will die in 2013 from liver failure after acetaminophen overdose.
> 
> In 2009, research showed that it seemed to dull the pain of social rejection -- sort of like alcohol or Xanax. The author of that study, Nathan DeWall at the University of Kentucky, said at that time, "Social pain, such as chronic loneliness, damages health as much as smoking and obesity." 
> 
> New research this week found that Tylenol altered the way subjects passed moral judgements. Psychologists used that as a proxy measure for personal distress, a relationship that has been previously demonstrated.
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> Daniel Randles and colleagues at the University of British Columbia write in the journal Psychological Science, "The meaning-maintenance model posits that any violation of expectations leads to an affective experience that motivates compensatory affirmation. We explore whether the neural mechanism that responds to meaning threats can be inhibited by acetaminophen." Totally.
> 
> More plainly, "Physical pain and social rejection share a neural process and subjective component that are experienced as distress." That neural process has been traced to the same part of the brain. They figure that if you blunt one, you blunt both. As they told LiveScience, "When people feel overwhelmed with uncertainty in life or distressed by a lack of purpose, what they're feeling may actually be painful distress ... We think that Tylenol is blocking existential unease in the same way it prevents pain, because a similar neurological process is responsible for both types of distress."



What's Tylenol Doing to Our Minds?






> New research suggests acetaminophen (Tylenol) may help individuals overcome non-specific fear and anxiety brought about by thinking about death or the human condition.
> 
> According to lead researcher Daniel Randles and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, the new findings suggest that Tylenol may have more profound psychological effects than previously understood.
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> The study, which posits an expanded view of how the human brain processes different kinds of pain, is published in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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> âPain exists in many forms, including the distress that people feel when exposed to thoughts of existential uncertainty and death,â says Randles.
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> âOur study suggests these anxieties may be processed as âpainâ by the brain â but Tylenol seems to inhibit the signal telling the brain that something is wrong.â
> ...



Acetaminophen Seems to Ease Some Existential Fears





> Getting the snub from friends can feel like a slap in the face. Now researchers say treating such social pain may be as easy as popping a pain pill. They warn, however, that more research is needed before anyone tries the approach.
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> The finding builds on research showing that psychological blows not only feel like they hurt us, they actually do. For instance, scientists have found a gene linked with both physical pain and a person's sensitivity to rejection. And some of the same brain regions are linked with both pain types.
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> So perhaps it's not surprising that a painkiller would alleviate both as well.
> 
> "The idea that a drug designed to alleviate physical pain should reduce the pain of social rejection seemed simple and straightforward based on what we know about neural overlap between social and physical pain systems," said lead researcher C. Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky. "To my surprise, I couldn't find anyone who had ever tested this idea."
> 
> But DeWall warns more research is needed to firm up the results. "Our findings do not constitute a call for widespread use of acetaminophen to cope with all types of personal problems," the researchers write in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.
> ...



Pain Pills Could Ease Hurt Feelings

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## Antidote

> For instance, scientists have found a gene linked with both physical pain and a person's sensitivity to rejection. And some of the same brain regions are linked with both pain types.



I wonder if this means those who are hypersensitive to rejection have lower physical pain tolerance?

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## Equinox

I believe so





> Also known as endorphin deficiency disorder (EDS), a deficiency of endorphins can be difficult for medical professionals to diagnose initially until testing shows the lack of these chemicals. Many of the symptoms associated with EDS are similar to the symptoms that occur in depressive disorders, such as manic depression and bipolar disorder. Depression, chronic or intermittent, and general body aches are the two most common symptoms, and a person may also have a tendency to cry without a logical reason or feel pain more easily. EDS makes it difficult for people to be generally happy in their lives.
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> A genetic deficiency is a type of EDS that a person is born with, in which the brain doesn't release endorphins as it should from the time of birth. People with a genetic deficiency are more likely to be emotionally over-sensitive. Despite the suffererâs best efforts, every step of normal life has an ominous feel.



http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-endo...deficiency.htm

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## Otherside

Odd, I used to use tylenol (not ODing or anything, I took the recommended amount and no more) for a few days at times when anxiety depression got bad. There was nothing in it that should have helped, but it did. It wasn't one of the ones with codeine is that are addicted, just plain tylenol tablets. If anything, I'd take below the average dose.





> I wonder if this means those who are hypersensitive to rejection have lower physical pain tolerance?



I suppose I'm one of them. It seems to take me forever to get over rejection and I take it way too personal. I don't seem to cope as well with rejection with others. On the other hand, I seem to cope better with physical pain better than other people. Then again, I spent a lot of time in hospital when I was younger because of a dodgy ear that was pretty darn painful, and my mum reckons I'm better with physical pain because of that expierence. So I don't know.

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