Blunted Affect

Blunted affect describes when a person's emotional responses are less intense or as strong as they should be. A type of reduced affect, feelings and reactions are reduced in comparison to a normal response. This can be a symptom of schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Blunted affect is not as severe as flat affect which is no emotional response at all. An example of blunted affect would be a person who was just told they won $5 million dollars and their reaction was to smile faintly.