The latest work suggests that the drug alone can produce emotional blunting. In the study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, 66 volunteers were given either the SSRI drug, escitalopram, or a placebo for at least 21 days before doing a set of cognitive tests.
So the study was very tiny (30 subjects in each arm) and too short (21 days).
It's odd that they chose the three week mark to administer the cognitive tests.
It's common practice to wait at least 4 weeks to evaluate the effect of a SSRI for patients with depression clinically unless they are very severe because of the wonky and delayed mechanism of action of the drug which takes at least 7 days to have any effect at all.
So the study was very tiny (30 subjects in each arm) and too short (21 days).
It's odd that they chose the three week mark to administer the cognitive tests.
It's common practice to wait at least 4 weeks to evaluate the effect of a SSRI for patients with depression clinically unless they are very severe because of the wonky and delayed mechanism of action of the drug which takes at least 7 days to have any effect at all.