++Some People Who Take Prozac Report Their Experience of Emotions is Blunted: BJP
Summary:
Paragraphs three & four read: "Background Some people who takeselective serotonin reuptake inhibitor(SSRI) antidepressants report that their experience of emotionsis ‘blunted’. This phenomenon is poorly understood. Aims To understand patients’ experiences of this phenomenon."
Emotional side-effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: qualitative study
Jonathan Price, DPhil, MRCPsych, Victoria Cole, MSc and Guy M. Goodwin, FMedSci DPhil
University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry, The Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
Correspondence: Jonathan Price, University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry, The Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK. Email: jonathan.price@psych.ox.ac.uk
Declaration of interest
J.P. has received grants and honoraria from Servier and is aformer shareholder in a UK company marketing a computerisedCBT package for depression. G.G. has received grants from Sanofi-Aventisand Servier in the past and recent honoraria from AstraZeneca,BMS, Eisai, Lundbeck and Servier. He is a current advisor forAstraZeneca, BMS, Lilly, Lundbeck, P1Vital and Sanofi-Aventis,and a past advisor for Servier and Wyeth.
Funding
Servier, the funders, were able to comment on initial studydesign, but had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretationof data, and no role in the writing of the manuscript. Servierhave a research programme for the development of psychotropiccompounds, including antidepressants. Although they were ableto comment on the final manuscript, no changes were introducedas a result of their comments, and they had no influence onthe decision to submit the paper for publication. The researcherswere, therefore, independent of the funders.
Background
Some people who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor(SSRI) antidepressants report that their experience of emotionsis ‘blunted’. This phenomenon is poorly understood.
Aims
To understand patients’ experiences of this phenomenon.
Method
Qualitative study, gathering data through individual interviews,a group interview and validation interviews; and searchingpatient websites for relevant posts.
Results
There was strong evidence that some people taking SSRIs experiencesignificant emotional symptoms that they strongly attributeto their antidepressant. These emotional symptoms can be describedwithin six key themes. A seventh theme represents the impactof these side-effects on everyday life, and an eighth representsparticipants’ reasons for attributing these symptomsto their antidepressant. Most participants felt able to distinguishbetween emotional side-effects of antidepressants and emotionalsymptoms of their depression or other illness.
Conclusions
Emotional side-effects of SSRIs are a robust phenomenon, prominentin some people’s thoughts about their medication, havinga demonstrable impact on their functioning and playing a rolein their decision-making about antidepressant adherence.