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Even the experience of heartbreak can activate the same brain regions as physical pain,research suggests.A 2011 study published in the *Journal of Neurosciences* found that social rejection shares neural mechanisms wiht physical pain. Furthermore, acetaminophen (Tylenol), can slightly dull emotional pain, research suggests.
For more severe or persistent emotional pain, medications targeting the brain’s opioid pathways may help. “You can treat mental pain with narcotics,” said Dr. Yoram Yovell, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist-but he stresses thay’re not a safe long-term solution.
In a 2016 study lead by Dr. Yovell, he administered extremely low doses of the synthetic opioid buprenorphine to people experiencing severe emotional pain. Those who received the medication reported less mental pain and fewer suicidal thoughts compared with participants who received a placebo, the study found. “That works when the pain is severe,” he said.
dr. Yovell, however, also emphasized that mental anguish serves a purpose.
“I think that acute mental pain is a great thing,” he said. “It lets you know who you care about. It can stop you from doing impulsive things.”
But when that pain becomes chronic,when it depresses people or makes them suicidal,he says psychiatry has to treat it the way medicine treats chronic physical pain: carefully,and with close monitoring.
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