Reduced affect display

Reduced affect display, sometimes referred to as emotional blunting or emotional numbing, is a condition of reduced emotional reactivity in an individual. It manifests as a failure to express feelings either verbally or nonverbally, especially when talking about issues that would normally be expected to engage emotions. In this condition, expressive gestures are rare and there is little animation in facial expression or vocal inflection.^[1] Additionally, reduced affect can be symptomatic of autism, schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, depersonalization-derealization disorder,^[2][3][4] schizoid personality disorder or brain damage.^[5] It may also be a side effect of certain medications (e.g., antipsychotics^[6] and antidepressants^[7]).

However, reduced affect should be distinguished from apathy and anhedonia, which explicitly refer to a lack of emotional sensation.

The ICD-11 identifies several types of affect disturbances, particularly focusing on variations in the reduction of emotional expression. Constricted affect refers to a noticeable limitation in the range and intensity of expressed emotions, though it is less pronounced than blunted affect. Blunted affect, in turn, describes a more severe reduction in emotional expressiveness, though not as extreme as flat affect, which is characterised by an almost complete absence of any observable emotional expression.^[8]