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Researchers have long known that pain relievers such as ibuprofen can also help with emotional distress - but have found it affects men and women very differently.

Men who take the drug report harsher feelings of rejection, and women report feeling better, researchers found.

They say the discovery could shed new light on how men and women deal with emotional problems - and how best to treat them.

Feeling the pain: Men who take the drug reported harsher feelings of rejection, while women reported feeling better, researchers found.

Recent research has found that both kinds of pain activate similar regions of the brain — and that differences in sex reveal opposing ways to mitigate the sting of social pain through over-the-counter pain relievers.

The research by Professor Anita L. Vangelisti at The University of Texas at Austin's Moody College of Communication, published in the June 2014 edition of Personal Relationships, could reveal new ways men and women can help each other deal with hurt feelings. 

According to her study,'Reducing social pain: Sex differences in the impact of physical pain relievers,' women who took ibuprofen had less intense hurt feelings when they were excluded from a game and when they relived a painful experience than their male counterparts, who felt more hurt in both situations.

'Hurt feelings are a part of any close relationship, so learning how to think and talk about the social pain we experience in our relationships is important,' said Vangelisti. 

'Understanding differences in the way women and men deal with their hurt feelings could go a long way toward helping couples cope with these feelings in their romantic and marital relationships.'

'It's possible that taking physical pain relievers provides men with more cognitive resources to express the pain they feel,' said Vangelisti. 

Researchers said the findings may expose differences in the ways women and men might best help each other deal with their hurt feelings.

'There's some evidence that, for men, the part of the brain that enables them to regulate their emotions is linked to the part of the brain that processes physical and social pain. 

'If that's the case, taking a physical pain reliever may affect men's ability to hide or suppress their social pain.'

Areas for further study include addressing the way men and women think about and express feelings and measuring the degree to which physical and social pain are linked.

Vangelisti said the findings of her study may expose differences in the ways women and men might best help each other deal with their hurt feelings.

'If our findings hold up for younger people, it also could help us address differences in the way children and adolescents think about and respond to socially painful situations like bullying,' said Vangelisti.