Widely used antidepressants can cause ’emotional blunting’, according to a study that provides new insights into how the drug works and possible side effects.
This study found that healthy volunteers became less responsive to positive and negative feedback after taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) for three weeks. “Dullening” negative emotions may be part of the way drugs help people recover from depression, but it can also explain common side effects.
Senior author of the study, Professor Barbara Sahakian of the University of Cambridge, said: They take away some of the emotional pain that people who have experienced depression feel, but unfortunately they also seem to take away some of the fun.
The findings may help patients make more informed choices about medication, she said, but “there is no doubt that antidepressants are beneficial for many patients.” added.
More than 8.3 million people in the UK will be on antidepressants between 2021 and 2022, according to the NHS. SSRIs are among the most widely used and are effective in most, if not all, patients.
Some people who take the drug have reported feeling emotionally duller or less enjoying things. One study suggests that this is true in 40-60% of people who take medication.
A new study suggests that drugs alone can cause emotional blunting. , escitalopram, or placebo for at least 21 days.
The drug made no difference in nearly all tests, including those assessing attention and memory. says Mr.
However, people taking SSRIs were less responsive to reinforcement learning, which required them to respond to positive or negative feedback. The participant was presented with two options for her, A and B, on the screen. Selecting A would reward her 4 times out of 5, while B only rewarded her 1 time out of 5. After a few turns people learn to choose A . Occasionally, the odds switched and participants had to learn new rules. The SSRI group was, on average, significantly slower to respond to these feedback changes.
In a questionnaire, volunteers taking escitalopram reported having more difficulty reaching orgasm during sex. This is another side effect often reported by patients.
Sahakian said the findings could be helpful for patients. “At least they can realize this.
Professor Catherine Hamer of the University of Oxford said the paper provides important insight into the effects of SSRI drugs in relation to patients and may also help guide the development of drugs with improved side effect profiles. “Having an objective measure of what people tell us are side effects is really helpful,” she said. You can see what you do.”
She added that the suggestion that as many as 60% of patients experienced emotional blunting “may be an overestimate.” This is exactly the kind of work we need, but this doesn’t affect everyone.
