This article by Jenny Logan has been published on the Mad in America website. It begins:
“While deficits in social cognition are often associated with and used to diagnose psychiatric disorders, new research suggests that the medications used to treat psychiatric disorders may also negatively affect social cognition.
Led by Zoe Haime at University College London, the researchers who conducted the study hypothesized that psychiatric medications that produce sedative effects might affect social cognition. They hoped their review would help clarify the nature of underlying deficits in social cognition in people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders to ‘help in the development of targeted treatments for social cognition, which may also improve social functioning and general outcomes.’ …
Social cognition is defined as the ‘mental processes which underlie the ability to understand and act on the thought, intentions, and behaviors of others.’ Psychiatric drugs, which work by altering specific neurotransmitter systems, have strong sedative effects and can cause permanent changes to the brain. Along with their sedative effects, psychiatric medications affect emotion and motivation and cause emotional blunting and loss of touch with oneself and others …”
You can read more from here.
