Patients taking antidepressants can become less sensitive to rewards – research

A widely-reported SSRI side effects is “blunting”, where patients say they feel emotionally dull and are not able to respond with the same level of enjoyment that they normally would.

(Chris Ison/PA)

Commonly-prescribed antidepressants can make patients become less sensitive to rewards – affecting a key behavioural learning process that can lead to emotional dullness, according to scientists.

Researchers have found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, can affect reinforcement learning, which allows people to learn from their actions and their environment.