A review of ssri-induced indifference

Limitations

I considered that it would be inappropriate to present this as a systematic review rather than a narrative review, given the disparate instruments used to measure outcome, the paucity of high-quality studies and the broad eligibility criteria used as a result.While no population level conclusions can be drawn about the prevalence of emotional blunting and apathy in patients on SSRI treatment, a conclusion can be drawn that there is no unambiguously well-designed study that demonstrates a clear population level prevalence of this adverse effect. For the clinician, the case reports suggest that pediatric case series recommend actively looking out for apathy due to poor insight by the patients and the subtlety of the symptoms, and that, both for adult and pediatric populations, it may be worth reducing the dose of the SSRI if the patient reports symptoms of emotional blunting or apathy as these may reverse.