The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence
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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“healthy young adults who were randomly assigned to take acetaminophen twice a day for 3 weeks exhibited significantly fewer hurt feelings on a daily basis and less neural sensitivity to a laboratory-based episode of social rejection (i.e., Cyberball) compared to their counterparts in the placebo condition”
From From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression. (2014) · cites this paper as DeWall et al., 2010
Citations
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Fung, K. (2014) · doi:10.14288/1.0165979
“In addition, active ingredients in physical painkillers, opiates and acetaminophen, have been shown to reduce hurt feelings (DeWall et al., 2010; Panksepp, 1998).”
Background
Metadata
- 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
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-06-14
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 931-937
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- 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
- 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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