Is this a thing? I’ve never heard of it reducing empathy.

>potent physical painkiller

So I found something glaringly wrong in under a second I'm not wasting any more time

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Emotions trigger the same brain systems as physical pain for bad feelings. paracetamol must turn down pain by effecting common part of the system. So you blunt both physical pain and emotional pain and therefore you can't feel pain for other people.

Empathy is directly tied to the ratio between estrogen and testosterone in the body. (Yes, this is a grossly simplified statement, it's eli5 not eliamdoingmydissertstion.) Any drug that affects brain chemistry or blocks receptors in the brain (which paracetamol does) also alters the way the brain uses hormones like testosterone and estrogen, which then can affect mood, empathy, etc. by changing that ratio or changing the brain's perception of that ratio. (For example, the brain may have the same amount of estrogen, but if it can't absorb it out of the blood then it percieves that there is less, etc.)

The study here is interesting, but not conclusive. - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31001155/

We tested this hypothesis in a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment.

Specifically, we administered 1,000 mg acetaminophen or a placebo and measured effects on different measures of positive empathy while participants read scenarios about the uplifting experiences of other people.

Results showed that acetaminophen reduced personal pleasure and other-directed empathic feelings in response to these scenarios.

In contrast, effects on perceived positivity of the described experiences or perceived pleasure in scenario protagonists were not significant.

These findings suggest that (1) acetaminophen reduces affective reactivity to other people's positive experiences and (2) the experience of physical pain and positive empathy may have a more similar neurochemical basis than previously assumed.