Cited by 486Death Anxiety and Social ExclusionPain Mechanisms and TreatmentsNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

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Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence

DeWall, C. Nathan, MacDonald, Geoff, Webster, Gregory D., Masten, Carrie L., Baumeister, Roy F., Powell, Caitlin, Combs, David, Schurtz, David R., Stillman, Tyler F., Tice, Dianne M., Eisenberger, Naomi I.·2010·Psychological Science

DOI 10.1177/0956797610374741

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Abstract

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain-physical and social-may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants' brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

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“If acetaminophen, which decreases inflammation, is provided before playing the cyberball game, then activation in the stress/pain areas of the brain fails to occur (DeWall et al., 2010).”
Background
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Onoda, K. (2010) · Japanese Journal of Physiological Psychology and Psychophysiology · doi:10.5674/jjppp.28.29 · Cited by 1
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Self-citation
Neurological roots of emotional ambivalence: from brain networks to clinical implications
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“…that acetaminophen can attenuate both positive and negative emotional responses, consistent with a broader dampening of evaluative salience potentially relevant to ambivalent processing (DeWall et al., 2010; Durso et al., 2015; Mischkowski et al., 2019; Randles et al., 2016; Roberts et al., 2019).”
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“Emerging evidence suggests partial overlap between the physical and emotional pain networks [6, 24], and neurobiological evidence indicates that social pain can be mitigated by analgesics such as acetaminophen, just as physical pain [25].”
An electroencephalogram approach to explore the effect of social exclusion and smoking cues on smoking urge
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Roalsø, E. S., Klonteig, S., Kraft, B., Skarstein, S., Hilland, E., Mirtaheri, P., Aalberg, M., & Jonassen, R. (2024) · Behavioural Pharmacology · doi:10.1097/fbp.0000000000000795
“Dewall et al .”
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Response: Commentary: Acetaminophen Enhances the Reflective Learning Process
Shumake, J., Pearson, R., Koslov, S., Hamilton, B., Carver, C., & Beevers, C. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02099
““Although speculative, acetaminophen could potentially help people make difficult decisions by reducing emotional responses to affective contexts while at the same time facilitating more deliberative, effortful information processing (DeWall et al., 2010)” (p.”
Background
Selective REM-Sleep Suppression Increases Next-Day Negative Affect and Amygdala Responses to Social Exclusion
Glosemeyer, R., Diekelmann, S., Cassel, W., Kesper, K., Koehler, U., Westermann, S., Steffen, A., Borgwardt, S., Wilhelm, I., Müller-Pinzler, L., et al. (2020) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2020.06.15.148759
Bibliographie générale
Antheaume, B. (2019) · Albertus Magnus, Super Iohannem (Ioh. 1, 1-18) · doi:10.4000/books.septentrion.77228
Hypnotherapeutische Interventionen zur Behandlung von Schmerzen
Hönig, K. (2018) · Der Onkologe · doi:10.1007/s00761-018-0492-y
Acetaminophen Disrupts Memory in Object Recognition and Increases Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Phosphorylation in Male Mice
Milewski, T., & Orr, P. T. (2018) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/bne0000262
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Glossary
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Colour Plates
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I Predict, Therefore I Cannot Be
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Authors: DeWall, C. N., MacDonald, G., Webster, G. D., Masten, C. L., Baumeister, R. F., Powell, C., Combs, D., Schurtz, D. R., Stillman, T. F., Tice, D. M., & Eisenberger, N. I.
Affiliations: University of Kentucky (US)
University of Toronto (CA)
University of Florida (US)
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Florida State University (US)
Georgia College & State University (US)
ORCID: DeWall, C. Nathan
MacDonald, Geoff
Webster, Gregory D.
Baumeister, Roy F.
Powell, Caitlin
Stillman, Tyler F.
Tice, Dianne M.
Eisenberger, Naomi I.
Venue: Psychological Science
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2010-06-14
Volume: 21
Issue: 7
Pages: 931-937
ISSN: 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
1467-9280
DOI: 10.1177/0956797610374741
OpenAlex: W2114477072
Cited by: 486
References: 0
Citations by year: 2026: 13 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 27
FWCI: 35.85
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations: Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Institute of Mental Health (MH-65999)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords: paracetamol, social pain, social rejection, bodily pain, analgesia, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, placebo, affective pain
MeSH terms: Acetaminophen, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Pain, Reference Values, Rejection, Psychology, Social Behavior, Social Desirability, Stress, Psychological, Students, Analgesics, Non-Narcotic

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Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence

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