Can antidepressant use be associated with emotional blunting in a subset of patients with depression? A scoping review of available literature.

Introduction: Despite frequent recognition of emotional blunting in the published literature, either as a primary symptom of depression or as an adverse effect of antidepressants, there is no systematic synthesis on this topic to our knowledge. We undertook this scoping review to assess the prevalence, clinical features, implicated causes and management of emotional blunting, outlining the phenomenological and clinical gaps in research.

Method: A systematic search was done until March 15, 2022, to include all original studies (i.