Sertraline emotional numbness: can it last?

Yes, sertraline (Zoloft, Lustral) can make your feelings go flat, and for some people the numbness has stayed after stopping. Nobody knows how often that happens, or who it will happen to.

Lasting numbness after an SSRI can be part of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, or PSSD. Despite the name, PSSD is more than sex: the 2022 criteria describe a lasting change in genital sensation, often numbness, plus emotional numbing, problems with thinking and changes in other senses. The UK leaflet says sertraline’s sexual side effects have, in some cases, “continued after stopping treatment”.

The leaflet also lists emotional flatness, in words few people would recognise: “lack of caring”. The NHS page on sertraline doesn’t mention it at all, as of October 2026.

Max was prescribed sertraline in 2018 and took it for about a month. Afterwards, he says, he noticed he had no “high or lows”, and “no emotions at all”. The pleasure from music, from friends and from food was “gone”.

In the extract below he describes how it feels now, eight years on, in his own words. It’s one person’s account and doesn’t prove cause.

Play video: Max on what he lives with now (extract)

“I’m unable to feel any emotion,” he says. That means the bad ones and the good ones. He also describes “mostly no libido and genital numbness”.

Can sertraline make you feel emotionally numb?

Yes. The NHS lists feeling “emotionally numb” among the common side effects of antidepressants in general.

The UK Lustral leaflet lists “lack of caring” as uncommon, which means it may affect up to 1 in 100 people. The prescribing information for doctors calls it apathy. The leaflet also lists “feeling strange” as common. In the same place, the doctors’ version lists depersonalisation: a sense of being cut off from yourself.

Neither phrase sounds like numbness, and the NHS sertraline page leaves both out. So it’s easy not to link the flatness to the tablets. In someone with depression, “lack of caring” can look like the illness itself.

How common is emotional blunting on sertraline?

Nobody knows exactly. In a 2026 survey at a psychiatric clinic in Kashmir, India, doctors asked people whose depression was in remission, and who were taking one type of antidepressant, whether their feelings felt blunted.

Of the 44 people taking sertraline alone, 20 said yes. That’s nearly half, in people whose depression scores were low enough to count as remission.

The survey had no comparison group of people taking a dummy pill, and it asked people at one moment in time. So it can’t prove the sertraline caused the blunting, and it says nothing about what happened after people stopped.

Can sertraline emotional numbness last after stopping?

For some people it has lasted years after stopping. Nobody knows yet who will be affected, or whether it will ease.

The 2022 diagnostic criteria for PSSD, written by an international group of doctors and researchers, say PSSD’s “ancillary non-sexual symptoms may include: emotional numbing”. They add that emotional numbing or depersonalisation “may be a person’s main complaint in primary care”. Someone might see their GP about feeling nothing, and not mention sex at all.

The criteria also say: “Emotional and genital numbing commonly go together.” Sertraline’s sexual side effects are common, and the UK leaflet warns they have sometimes continued after stopping. Max lives with both. People don’t realise, he says, that PSSD is “not only about sexual symptoms”.

Max and sertraline

2018

About a month of sertralineAfterwards, he says, his highs and lows were gone.

The years after

Other medicinesHe was later given several other antidepressants and other medicines.

February 2026

Still no emotions"Unable to feel any emotion", he says.

Max’s case isn’t simple, because other medicines followed his month of sertraline. Some people feel numb for a while as they come off an antidepressant, too. PSSD or withdrawal? explains the difference, and how long sertraline stays in your system helps with the timing.

Professor Joanna Moncrieff’s short extract below is worth a minute if your doctor hasn’t heard of this. It’s general context about antidepressants, not about sertraline alone.

Play video: Professor Joanna Moncrieff on numbness after antidepressants (extract)

What can I do?

These medicines help many people. If you have side effects, that’s a decision for you and your prescriber. Don’t stop suddenly. The NHS sertraline page says: “Your doctor will gradually reduce your dose over several weeks or months.”

Tell your GP in your own words, such as “I can’t cry any more” or “music does nothing for me”. Give your dates: “Sertraline 100 mg from June 2022, last tablet May 2024.” Say whether the flatness began before, during or after.

Feeling nothing for a long time can be very hard. If you ever think about ending your life, Samaritans are free on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, day or night.

Report it: it helps everyone

A doctor’s note helps you. A report to the medicines regulator helps everyone else: it is how patterns get noticed.

• No proof needed. A suspicion is enough, even years after stopping.
• Where: the Yellow Card scheme in the UK, MedWatch in the US.
• Use the right words. Write “emotional numbness” and when it began. If sexual symptoms also continued after stopping, write Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (MedDRA 10086208).

Our reporting guide walks you through it

What else do people ask?

Is Zoloft the same as sertraline? Yes. Zoloft is the US brand name and Lustral the UK one. Most people in the UK get a generic tablet simply labelled sertraline. They’re the same medicine, so this page applies to all of them.

Can sertraline stop you crying? Some people say so. In a small 2002 study, people with sexual side effects from SSRIs said they were less able to cry than a comparison group. That study looked at several SSRIs together, so it doesn’t single out sertraline.

Is it the depression or the sertraline? It can be either, or both, so the two are easy to mix up. Many people in the Kashmir survey said they felt blunted even though their depression had eased. Timing helps too. Our pages on emotional blunting on antidepressants and Lexapro emotional numbness cover the wider research.

Max took sertraline for one month, and says he’s felt like “some sort of a shell” since. If your feelings went flat on sertraline and haven’t come back, write down when it began and report it. Read more about PSSD.

Sources

1. Lustral 50 mg and 100 mg film-coated tablets, patient information leaflet, Electronic Medicines Compendium (EMC 2835), last revised December 2025. Read 21 October 2026. Section 2, “Sexual problems”: SSRIs “may cause symptoms of sexual dysfunction (see section 4). In some cases, these symptoms have continued after stopping treatment.” Section 4 lists “feeling strange” as common (up to 1 in 10 people) and “lack of caring” as uncommon (up to 1 in 100 people). Section 3 on stopping: “Your doctor will want to gradually reduce your dose of Lustral over several weeks”. The summary of product characteristics (text revised December 2025), section 4.8, Table 1, lists depersonalisation as common and apathy as uncommon under psychiatric disorders; section 4.4 notes “reports of long-lasting sexual dysfunction where the symptoms have continued despite discontinuation of SSRIs”.
2. NHS, Antidepressants, page last reviewed 12 June 2025. Common side effects include “mood changes – like feeling more angry or emotionally numb”; withdrawal symptoms include “feeling low, suicidal, emotionally numb or like things are not real”. NHS, Sertraline, page last reviewed 8 September 2025: checked 21 October 2026, no mention of emotional numbness or apathy. On stopping: “do not suddenly stop taking it because it may cause withdrawal symptoms. Your doctor will gradually reduce your dose over several weeks or months.”
3. Nazir N, Nazir D, Mehmood R, Wani ZA, Raj R. Emotional blunting with antidepressants in major depressive disorder patients: a hospital-based cross-sectional study. Ind Psychiatry J 2026;35(1):54-9. Read in full. Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Kashmir, November 2022 to April 2024; 369 adults with major depression in remission (Hamilton score 7 or less), on a single class of antidepressant for at least 2 months. Screened at one visit with a single question about the emotional effects of their antidepressant; those who said yes then completed the Oxford Depression Questionnaire. Table 2: sertraline monotherapy, 20 of 44 (45%) reported emotional blunting. Limitations stated by the authors: no control group, cross-sectional, uncontrolled and non-blinded. No conflicts of interest declared.
4. Healy D, Bahrick A, Bak M and colleagues. Diagnostic criteria for enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, finasteride and isotretinoin. Int J Risk Saf Med 2022;33(1):65-76. For PSSD: “Ancillary non-sexual symptoms may include: emotional numbing”, with depersonalization. “Emotional and genital numbing commonly go together.” “Emotional numbing or depersonalization may be a person’s main complaint in primary care.” Criterion: the problem is present for 3 months or more after stopping. “The incidence of these conditions is unknown.”
5. Opbroek A, Delgado PL, Laukes C and colleagues. Emotional blunting associated with SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction. Do SSRIs inhibit emotional responses? Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2002;5(2):147-51. Abstract read. 15 people with SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction compared with controls; they reported less ability to cry, among other emotions.
6. Moral Medicine, interview with Max, 11 February 2026, embedded here from 10:38 to 12:28. From the YouTube auto-captions: about one month of sertraline, prescribed in 2018 (1:20 to 1:40). Asked what happened after stopping: “I noticed that I have no … high or lows like no emotions at all” (2:01 to 2:09); the pleasure from music, friends and food, “it’s disappeared it’s gone” (2:31 to 2:46); “some sort of a shell” (3:17). Later medicines included paroxetine, escitalopram, tricyclic antidepressants, mirtazapine, quetiapine and mood stabilisers (8:00 to 8:56). “I’m unable to feel any emotion unable to feel bad emotions positive as well” (11:06 to 11:13); “mostly no libido and genital numbness” (12:13 to 12:16). PSSD is “not only about sexual symptoms it’s also about … anhedonia” (20:23 to 20:28). Elsewhere in the film, outside the extract, he talks about despair. His story on our site: Max.
7. PSSD Network, Professor Joanna Moncrieff on PSSD, June 2026, embedded here from 1:03 to 1:29. From the YouTube auto-captions: “many people say that it’s not just sexual functioning, it’s their emotional functioning as well”, “they feel generally numbed, you know, emotionally and sexually”, and “their doctors may well not be aware of that”.
8. MedDRA term Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, code 10086208.