f you're like most Americans and experience the occasional headache or muscle pain, chances are you've probably taken acetaminophen to find some relief.
But new research shows the drug might come with an unexpected side effect. In addition to easing physical pain, it may also affect your ability to feel other people's pain -- your sense of empathy.
The medication, which is the main ingredient in Tylenol, is the most common drug ingredient in the United States, according to the Consumer Products Association. Each week, about 23 percent of American adults -- some 52 million people -- take medicine containing acetaminophen, the trade group reports.
This isn't the first study to suggest the drug may have an impact beyond easing aches and pains. Past research has shown it may blunt individual user's emotions -- both negative and positive. Now the new study finds that effect may extend to dulling empathy felt for others.
"Research shows that acetaminophen can have psychological effects, but the social effects hasn't been investigated as well yet," Dominik Mischkowski, co-author of the study and a former Ph.D. student at Ohio State, now at the National Institutes of Health, told CBS News.