Antidepressants can make peacockfish lack 'personality'

(the name "fluoxetine") is a commonly used antidepressant. It mainly inhibits the re-absorption of 5-serotonin by the central nervous system and is used to treat depression and its accompanying anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and overeat. But a new study has found that a lot of worry may make peacockfish lack "personality."
, February 10, local time, Science reported that researchers have found that long-term exposure to the drug makes peacock fish behave more similarly, eliminating behavioral differences between fish and fish. When the drug enters streams and rivers, it can be a big problem, potentially making fish stocks more vulnerable to predators and other threats.
decades, scientists have discovered in the lab and in the wild that a variety of drugs can alter fish courtship and migration behavior. After human administration, residual drugs pass into sewage treatment plants, after which some of the components that are difficult to degrade and eliminate can still enter the environment.
these findings are usually based on a combination of measurements of all individual animals in a group, resulting in an average. Giovanni Polverino, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Western Australia, and colleagues wanted to know whether the calculation obscured the technology's verses as important but subtle for individual animals. Are changes in the behavior of the drug similar among all organisms in a group? Or are certain behavioral traits more affected?
to find out, Polverino's team captured 3,600 peacockfish from a creek in north-eastern Australia. In the laboratory, the fish and their offspring (up to six generations) were divided into two groups, one in fresh water and one in fluoroxitine concentrations close to where the sewage came from. They were cultivated for two years.
, the scientists put a fish in a new tank with a white background at a time. In one corner, a dark patch provides a simulated hiding place, similar to the shadows that small fish often look for to avoid predators under rocks.
fish raised in non-toxic water show a variety of behaviors. Some fish sprint to life, while others look lazy. However, fish exposed to fluoroxitin have smaller differences. Most fish exposed to fluxitin remain moderately active, making them more like an ordinary fish, the team reported in the proceedings of the Royal Society B on February 10. Peacock fish in fluxitin are like "zombies, no longer have personalities," says Polverino.
, said the variability between the fish and the fish had dropped a lot, something he had never seen before.
, however, he says not all behavior is affected in the same way. Although the drug may seem to suppress personality when it comes to fish swimming around, it does not reduce the amount of time an individual spends hiding in the dark.
it's not clear why the hiding behavior hasn't changed in the same way, Polverino said. One possibility is that avoiding predators is critical to immediate survival, so behavior is less sensitive to drug-induced changes.
the findings could be extended to other animals, which have shown that they are sensitive to fluoroxitine in the environment. Kathleen Arnold, an ecologist at the University of York, studied worms wrapped in flusitin to feed their eight brothers, making them less interested in mating. In fact, humans have a similar phenomenon.
new findings also suggest that long-term exposure to drugs can change behavior, Arnold said. In the past, some scientists have questioned whether the changes in behavior seen after brief exposure will disappear as animals become accustomed to the drug. But the new study suggests that after years of breeding in drug-contaminated water, the effects persist.