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Research suggests that people who have been taking common antidepressants for a few months to two years experience higher levels of general and sexual boredom than those not taking the medication. These findings indicate that boredom might be an overlooked side effect that could influence whether patients continue their treatment. The study was published in the journal Psychological Reports.
Boredom is a psychological state characterized by wanting to engage in a satisfying activity but being unable to do so. It is generally understood in two forms. State boredom refers to a temporary feeling of dissatisfaction in a specific moment or situation. Trait boredom describes a person’s general, stable disposition toward feeling bored across various situations.
Both forms of boredom are heavily linked to negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and impulsive behavior. The experience of boredom can lead to low-energy states like lethargy. It can also produce high-energy states characterized by restlessness, agitation, and frustration.
Sexual boredom is a related concept that refers to a tendency to feel dissatisfied or unengaged with the repetitive or routine aspects of one’s sex life. This is distinct from sexual dysfunction, which involves physical difficulties with sexual response or pleasure. People dealing with sexual boredom often experience a lack of psychological stimulation during intimacy, even if their physical capacity for sex remains intact.
To cope with this monotony, sexually bored individuals sometimes seek out novel experiences to increase their arousal. Past research associates high levels of sexual boredom with hypersexuality, excessive pornography use, and general life dissatisfaction.
People with depression frequently report high levels of both general and sexual boredom. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are the most commonly prescribed class of medication used to treat depression. These medications are widely known to cause side effects related to sexual dysfunction, with a large percentage of patients experiencing a reduced sex drive or difficulty reaching orgasm.
SSRIs can also cause emotional blunting, a side effect where a person feels less intense sadness but also less intense joy, motivation, or interest. Because depression and SSRI use both affect sexual and general engagement, researchers wanted to see how antidepressant use relates to different types of boredom. A research team led by Juliana Riccardi, a researcher at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and the New School for Social Research, set out to explore this relationship. They focused specifically on SSRIs to avoid the varying effects of different medication classes.
The researchers recruited 251 adult participants in the United States through an online platform. The participants ranged in age from 21 to 75 years old. Fifty of these individuals reported taking an SSRI medication, while the remaining 201 participants were not taking any antidepressants.
The researchers asked the participants to complete a series of validated questionnaires to measure their psychological well-being. These surveys included the Boredom Proneness Scale to measure trait boredom and the State Boredom Measure to assess recent feelings of immediate boredom. The participants also completed the Sexual Boredom Scale, which gauges the monotony and routine in their sex lives by asking about their need for variety and change to feel sexually satisfied.
Finally, the researchers used the Beck Depression Inventory to measure the severity of the participants’ depressive symptoms. This questionnaire asks individuals to rate changes in their appetite, energy levels, sleep patterns, and overall mood over the previous two weeks.
The participants taking SSRIs were divided into two groups based on how long they had been on the medication. The short-term use group consisted of 25 individuals who had been taking SSRIs for a period ranging from six weeks to two years. The long-term use group consisted of 25 individuals who had been taking the medication for more than two years.
When comparing these groups, the researchers found that short-term SSRI users reported higher levels of state boredom, trait boredom, and sexual boredom than individuals who did not take SSRIs. The long-term SSRI users, on the other hand, had boredom scores that did not differ from those of the non-users in a way that was statistically significant.
To ensure that these results were not just a byproduct of underlying depression, the researchers ran additional statistical tests. They found that even after adjusting for the severity of a participant’s depressive symptoms, the short-term SSRI users still reported higher levels of state boredom and sexual boredom than those not taking the drugs. The differences in trait boredom, however, disappeared once depression was accounted for.
The findings suggest that heightened state and sexual boredom are present during the first two years of SSRI treatment. The researchers propose that as the medication gradually alleviates the primary symptoms of depression, people might begin to engage more with their environments again. This re-engagement could eventually lead to a reduction in boredom for those who stay on the drugs for several years.
Alternatively, the elevated boredom in the short-term group might point to a reason why some people stop taking their medication. If patients experience lingering sexual and general boredom during the first few years of treatment, they might find the experience deeply unpleasant. This frustration could lead them to abandon the medication before they reach the long-term phase.
The researchers also found that sexual boredom was strongly linked to general boredom tendencies. When the statistical models accounted for a person’s general trait and state boredom, the specific differences in sexual boredom between the SSRI users and non-users disappeared. This indicates that sexual boredom operates as an extension of a person’s overall tendency to feel bored, rather than as a unique symptom of depression or medication use.
Because this study relied on observational data collected at a single point in time, it cannot prove that taking SSRIs causes people to become bored. It is possible that individuals with severe boredom and depression are simply more likely to be prescribed antidepressants in the first place. The study also relied entirely on self-reported data, which can introduce biases based on how accurately participants remember and report their own experiences.
The number of participants taking SSRIs was relatively modest, which limited the statistical power of the analysis. Because there were only 25 people in each SSRI subgroup, the researchers could not definitively determine if the differences between short-term and long-term users were a direct result of the medication’s duration.
The study did not track patients’ complete medical histories regarding past antidepressant use. Some individuals who stop taking SSRIs experience a condition known as post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, where sexual side effects persist long after the medication is discontinued. The researchers could not account for how this condition might have influenced the boredom scores of individuals in the non-user group who might have taken antidepressants in the past.
Future studies would need to track patients over several years to observe how boredom levels change as they start and continue antidepressant treatment. Researchers could also look at other classes of antidepressants to see if they produce similar associations.
Identifying boredom as a potential hurdle in mental health treatment could change how doctors approach medication management. By discussing boredom as a possible experience during early SSRI use, clinicians might help patients navigate the side effects and maintain their treatment regimens.
The study, “Levels of Reported Depression, Boredom Salience, and Sexual Boredom as a Function of Length of Time on Antidepressant Medications,” was authored by Juliana Riccardi, Ali Revill, Sally McHugh, Emily Weiss, Panteá Farvid, and McWelling Todman.