Fish exposed to anxiety medication show altered behavior, study finds

[struggle4progress]

By Brady Dennis, Thursday, February 14, 3:14 PM

What happens to a fish on drugs?

If it’s a wild European perch exposed to a popular anxiety medication, chances are it’s antisocial, wanders away from the safety of its group and devours food more quickly than its peers — all behaviors that could have profound ecological consequences, according to a forthcoming report in the journal Science.

In a study aimed at further understanding the environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals that often wind up in the world’s waterways through wastewater, researchers from Umea University in Sweden examined how perch behaved when exposed to oxazepam, a drug commonly used to treat anxiety disorders in humans. The scientists exposed the fish to concentrations of the drug similar to those found in the waters near densely populated areas in Sweden ...

Brodin told an audience at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston on Thursday that researchers conducted a “boldness test” on the perch, opening a door that would allow them to swim from a small box into a much larger water tank. The fish with no drugs in their system remained timid and “didn’t come out at all,” he said, while those on oxazepam did ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fish-exposed-to-anxiety-meds-show-altered-behavior-study-finds/2013/02/14/d7a36a5e-7639-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html