Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, they're
Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren vocal bomb Here. Forty years have gone by.
Speaker 1: It's the debut of the popular antidepressant fluoxetine, popularly known
Speaker 1: by the trade name Prozac. It's in a class of
Speaker 1: antidepressants called S s R eyes that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
Speaker 1: They give the brain a little boost in serotonin, the
Speaker 1: chemical in the brain thought to affect happiness. After all
Speaker 1: this time, it's still the most effective and popular antidepressant
Speaker 1: on the market, and experts say it's not getting replaced
Speaker 1: anytime soon. And since demand for the drug is rising
Speaker 1: each year, it looks like more fluoxetine will be in
Speaker 1: our medicine cabinets, and as a result, that means we'll
Speaker 1: have more fluoxetine in our environment, and researchers want to
Speaker 1: know what it's doing. It's not news that we ingest
Speaker 1: all kinds of chemicals oral contraceptives, antibiotics, mood enhancers, and
Speaker 1: even caffeine that end up in our toilets since our
Speaker 1: bodies can't entirely metabolize them, and after they're flushed, chemicals
Speaker 1: like fluoxetine and up in rivers and streams, and after
Speaker 1: that in the oceans. What effect these chemicals have on
Speaker 1: ecosystems once they show up isn't well understood, but study
Speaker 1: found that even small doses of the drug can render
Speaker 1: the notoriously aggressive Siamese fighting fish uncharacteristically chill. A new
Speaker 1: study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution examines the
Speaker 1: effect of flu oxytine on shore crabs on the Oregon
Speaker 1: Coast and finds exposure to the drug might be making
Speaker 1: them careless in their foraging habits. A Portland State University
Speaker 1: research team exposed shore crabs in a lab to trace
Speaker 1: amounts of fluoxetine at levels that have been detected on
Speaker 1: the organ shore. Over the course of sixty days. They
Speaker 1: found these crabs forged more during times of the day
Speaker 1: they typically stay hidden, exposing them to the threat of predation.
Speaker 1: These crabs also fought more with others in their species,
Speaker 1: sometimes killing or being killed in the process. A researcher,
Speaker 1: a Lease Grantic, a professor in Portland State University's Department
Speaker 1: of Environmental Sciences and Management, sudden to press release the
Speaker 1: changes we observed in their behaviors may mean that crabs
Speaker 1: living in harbors and estuaries contaminated with fluoxyitine are at
Speaker 1: a greater risk of predation and mortality. Further research is
Speaker 1: needed to learn how this and other pharmaceutical waste will
Speaker 1: affect our oceans and what we can do about it.
Speaker 1: But for now, you can help a little by contacting
Speaker 1: your doctor or pharmacy to dispose of any unwanted medications
Speaker 1: instead of throwing them in the trash or toilet. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other fishy topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.