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https://news.sky.com/story/prozac-pollution-making-fish-less-aggressive-says-study-11860507
Psychoactive drugs - including antidepressants - are altering the reproductive behaviour, anxiety levels, and anti-predator responses of fish in the wild, according to Australia's Monash University.
[...] According to the research[0], Prozac didn't change the feeding and foraging behaviour of solitary fish, however when it was applied to whole groups of fish it had a suppressive effect.
Last year, another study[1] covering the impact of Prozac pollution on fish said it could last for three generations, blunting the stress responses in exposed embryos and any of that embryo's descendants once it had matured.
The study, from the University of Ottowa, showed how zebrafish didn't explore their tank as much when they were treated with Prozac.
Dr Vance Trudeau, a neuroendocrinologist, said there were good reasons to believe the effects that his study revealed could also occur in humans.
This is because the core stress hormone cortisone has the same impact in fish as it does on humans.
0Field-realistic antidepressant exposure disrupts group foraging dynamics in mosquitofish[$], Biology Letters (DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4711484)
1Transgenerational hypocortisolism and behavioral disruption are induced by the antidepressant fluoxetine in male zebrafish Danio rerio[$], Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1811695115)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday December 02 2019, @10:56AM (4 children)
So, the effect is humans exploring less zebra fishes' tank? Or will they be exploring less the humans' tank? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @12:55PM
They're more likely to vote Republican.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @02:35PM
One can only speculate, so we're probably all just going to engage in confirmation bias. And it's also difficult to separate cause from effect. For instance one known datum is that Americans are now moving about vastly [curbed.com] less than they used to. We're also doing the exact some in the more literal sense, which is likely contributing to the increasingly absurd levels of obesity and poor health.
There are obvious political implications as well. For instance if it really does meaningfully impair predator response it would suggest it might be becoming easier for "predators" to manipulate "prey" without their awareness, or perhaps concern. Of course again though when you start filling in the blanks with nouns, people are just going to be going full on confirmation bias since everybody thinks they know everything and it's just the other guy being manipulated. One thing that is for certain is that those who identify as democrats tend to have vastly higher [buzzfeednews.com] (shit source, but l see no reason to expect the survey is fake or completely invalid) rates of mental illness than those who identify as republican. This would suggest different rates of psychotropic use by political identity.
There are also weird things like mass shooters. The only thing these guys clearly have in common is a very disproportionate usage of psychotropic pharmaceuticals. Kind of interesting that it lowers aggressiveness, and weakens the response to predators, yet it is probably also contributing to some absurdly violent behaviors in a tiny chunk of people.
Definitely something I found interesting and that should undoubtedly be studied more, and rapidly. It would be rather interesting if some decades from now people look at psychotropics as we now look at e.g. leaded fuel (or even lead itself if you go back in history a bit). Different manifestation of course but all things that became completely ubiquitous before discovering we were effectively poisoning ourselves.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday December 02 2019, @03:06PM
More data is needed. I suggest writing a research grant application.
(running joke among some of my friends- the more ludicrous the idea, the more a grant is needed...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @04:41PM
Dory was on Prozac?