By: Bill Pan
Commonly-prescribed antidepressants can cause patients to become emotionally numb by affecting a key cognitive function that allows people to learn from their actions, a new study suggests.
A class of antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), is widely used to treat patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These drugs block serotonin from being absorbed back into the blood, leaving a higher level of the “feel-good chemical” in the brain.
While SSRIs are effective in helping to alleviate severe MDD or OCD symptoms, many of those who take the drugs report “blunting,” meaning they are unable to experience positive or negative emotions such as happiness or sadness and no longer find things as enjoyable as they used to.
In a study published on Jan. 23 in Neuropsychopharmacology researchers at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, recruited 66 healthy volunteers and divided them into two groups. One group (of 34) was given a placebo, while the other group (of 32) was given escitalopram, an SSRI known to be one of the best-tolerated by MDD patients.
After three weeks, both groups were asked to complete a series of tests to assess cognitive functions including learning, memory, executive function, reinforcement behavior, and decision-making.
Compared with the placebo group, the 32 volunteers who took escitalopram were found to be less responsive to reinforcement learning—less able to learn from the feedback from interactions with their surroundings.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/patients-taking-antidepressants-become-emotionally-numb-researchers-investigate-why_5004305.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=TheLibertyDaily