United Kingdom: A new study has found that widely used antidepressants can cause “emotional blunting.” According to the study, healthy volunteers became less responsive to positive and negative feedback after taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug for three weeks.

The “blunting” of negative emotions could be part of how the drugs help people recover from depression but could also explain a common side effect.

According to the National Health Service, more than 8.3 million patients in England received an antidepressant drug in the years 2021–2022. One of the most widely used classes of antidepressants, particularly for persistent or severe cases, is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

The latest work suggests that the drug alone can produce emotional blunting. In the study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, 66 volunteers were given either the SSRI drug, escitalopram, or a placebo for at least 21 days before doing a set of cognitive tests.

Some people on the medication report feeling emotionally dull or no longer finding things as pleasurable, with one study suggesting this applied to 40–60 percent of people taking the drug. However, it has been unclear whether this symptom is a drug side effect or a symptom of depression.

The work’s senior author, Prof. Barbara Sahakian of the University of Cambridge, remarked that “in a way, this may be in part how they work. They take away some of the emotional pain that people who experience depression feel, but unfortunately, it seems that they also take away some of the enjoyment.”

“The findings could help patients make better-informed choices about their medication. There is no doubt that antidepressants are beneficial for many patients,” Prof. Sahakian added.

Prof. Catherine Harmer, of the University of Oxford, noted that “it’s really useful to have an objective measure of what people are telling us is a side effect. Once you have a measure, you can look at how new treatments affect that.”

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