Man looking out of window Credit: Ethan Sykes
Man looking out of window Credit: Ethan Sykes Scientists have worked out why common anti-depressants cause around a half of users to feel emotionally -blunted-. In a study published today, they show that the drugs affect reinforcement learning, an important behavioural process that allows us to learn from our environment. According to the NHS, more than 8.3 million patients in England received an antidepressant drug in 2021/22. A widely-used class of antidepressants, particularly for persistent or severe cases, is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs target serotonin, a chemical that carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and has been dubbed the -pleasure chemical-. One of the widely-reported side effects of SSRIs is -blunting-, where patients report feeling emotionally dull and no longer finding things as pleasurable as they used to. Between 40-60% of patients taking SSRIs are believed to experience this side effect.
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