Why Antidepressants Dull Both Negative and Positive Emotions

To Claire Wilson

The unwanted flattening of all emotions is one of the most frequent side effects. antidepressants – And now we know more about why it happens.

The most commonly used type of antidepressant belongs to a class called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). They are thought to work by increasing levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Not sure why this could improve our mood.

Up to half of people taking antidepressants experience an unwanted attenuation of both positive and negative emotions. Say, “They talk about things they don’t feel like much.” Barbara Sahakian at the University of Cambridge.

depression As such, it often causes a lack of pleasure in activities that a person once enjoyed. Sahakian and her colleagues therefore attributed the affective suppression effects of SSRIs to mental health condition.

The researchers tested a commonly prescribed SSRI called escitalopram or placebo 66 people without pills depressionAfter three weeks, participants performed various tasks. memory and learning.

One task required repeatedly choosing between two stimuli and measured how well they learned from the reward. Through trial and error, they learned that some stimuli usually yielded rewards more often than others. The reward probabilities for each stimulus were then switched, and participants had to learn this new system.

Participants taking antidepressants were 23% less sensitive to stimulus switching than participants taking placebo, as measured by how quickly they changed stimulus choice. Other tests have shown that the drug does not impair cognitive performance in other ways.

The findings suggest that SSRIs reduce people’s sensitivity to rewards and other pleasurable experiences, Sahakian said. But the drug can also blunt the intensity of negative emotions, which may help, she added.

“I hope this doesn’t make doctors more cautious about prescribing antidepressants because they are very important drugs,” she says. “We hope it will inspire doctors to discuss potential side effects with their patients,” she said.

“Why antidepressants cause emotional blunting in some people is a very important question,” he said. Catherine Hamer at Oxford University. “I don’t think this result explains why people have this effect, but it could be a marker for it, and in developing new treatments that don’t have it. It might help.”

Hamer said the study would have been more helpful if participants were also asked if they experienced dulled emotions while taking antidepressants.

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