Higher paracetamol levels are associated with elevated glucocorticoid concentrations in hair: findings from a large cohort of young adults.

Paracetamol is one of the most commonly used over-the-counter medications. Experimental studies suggest a possible stress-suppressing effect of paracetamol in humans facing experimental stress-inducing paradigms. However, no study has investigated whether paracetamol and steroid hormones covary over longer time frames and under real-life conditions. This study addresses this gap by investigating associations between steroid hormones (cortisol, cortisone, and testosterone) and paracetamol concentrations measured in human hair, indexing a timeframe of approximately three months. The data came from a large community sample of young adults (N = 1002). Hair data were assayed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Multiple regression models tested associations between paracetamol and  steroid hormones, while adjusting for a wide range of potential confounders, such as sex, stressful live events, psychoactive substance use, hair colour, and body mass index. Almost one in four young adults from the community had detectable paracetamol in their hair (23%). Higher paracetamol hair concentrations were robustly associated with more cortisol (ß = 0.13, ηp = 0.016, p < 0.001) and cortisone (ß = 0.16, ηp = 0.025, p < 0.001) in hair. Paracetamol and testosterone hair concentrations were not associated. Paracetamol use intensity positively correlated with corticosteroid functioning across several months. However, a potential corticosteroid-inducing effect of chronic paracetamol use has yet to be tested in future experimental designs.

The worst and the best: new insights into risk and resilience in young adults from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Historic declines in young people's mental health began to emerge before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of this youth mental health crisis, the pandemic constituted a naturalistic stressor paradigm that came with the potential to uncover new knowledge for the science of risk and resilience. Surprisingly, approximately 19-35% of people reported better well-being in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic than before. Therefore, in May and September 2020, we asked N=517 young adults from a cohort study to describe the best and the worst aspects of their pandemic lives (N=1,462 descriptions). Inductive thematic analysis revealed that the best aspects included the deceleration of life and a greater abundance of free time, which was used for hobbies, healthy activities, strengthening relationships, and for personal growth and building resilience skills. Positive aspects also included a reduction in educational pressures and work load and temporary relief from climate change concerns. The worst aspects included disruptions and changes to daily life; social distancing and restrictions of freedoms; negative emotions that arose in the pandemic situation, including uncertainty about the future; and the growing polarization of society. Science that aims to reverse the youth mental health crisis must pay increased attention to sources of young people's distress that are not commonly measured (e.g., their educational, work, and time pressures; their fears and uncertainties about their personal, society's, and the global future), and also to previously untapped sources of well-being - including those that young people identified for themselves while facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42844-023-00096-y.