Can drugs support emotional developement in personality disorders?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

Some personality disorders are associated with a degree of emotional blindness or coldness with narcissistic PD being such an example. I wonder whether there are drugs that - in addition to psychotherapy - aid in the process of learning to feel, express and cope with emotions.

Particularly, I wonder if antidepressants might be effective in this task. Serotonin ADs help to handle anxiety and depression and taken long-term might even heal things like social anxiety and generalized anxiety. Depression is also linked to somewhat reduced brain activity. The same holds for norepinephrine. Dopamine antagonists are also said to support the feelings of pleasure and motivation. The question is if these effects are permanent or tend to disappear or worsen upon discontinuation.

Moreover, some ADs are believed to induce "emotional flatness" which would possibly hinder the process of healing through psychotherapy.

It is known that SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants, after taken for a while or taken one after another (if the doctor is trying to see what works), can cause what is called "emotional blunting". In this instance, the individual in question is often unable to cry, even if he or she wants to. In other cases, the person may seem fully present but operate merely intellectually when emotional connection would be appropriate. This may present an extreme difficulty in giving or receiving empathy and can be related to the spectrum of narcissistic personality disorder.[1]

As far as I know the amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for handling emotions. My question is if there are drugs that directly stimulate neuronal growth in amygdala to improve emotional processing.

[1] Johnson, Stephen M (1987), Humanizing the Narcissistic Style, NY: Norton and Co., p. 125, ISBN 0-393-70037-2