Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with another classic episode from
Speaker 1: our archives. We hear a brain Stuff are huge proponents
Speaker 1: of managing your mental health. However it works best for you,
Speaker 1: whether that's through lifestyle changes, some kind of talk, therapy,
Speaker 1: or medication. But because of the many medications that humans take,
Speaker 1: we also need to take care of how they may
Speaker 1: affect the environment. This episode is a study in Prozac
Speaker 1: and crabs. Hey there, brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbam Here. Forty
Speaker 1: years have gone by. It's the debut of the popular
Speaker 1: antidepressant flu oxytine, popularly known by the trade name prozac.
Speaker 1: It's in a class of antidepressants called s s R
Speaker 1: EYES that's selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They give the brain
Speaker 1: a little boost in serotonin, the chemical in the brain
Speaker 1: thought to affect happiness. After all this time, it's still
Speaker 1: the most effective and popular antidepressant on the market, and
Speaker 1: experts say it's not getting replaced anytime soon, and since
Speaker 1: demand for the drug is rising each year, it looks
Speaker 1: like more fluoxetine will be in our medicine cabinets and
Speaker 1: as a result, that means we'll have more fluoxetine in
Speaker 1: our environment, and researchers want to know what it's doing.
Speaker 1: It's not news that we ingest all kinds of chemicals
Speaker 1: oral contraceptives, antibiotics, mood enhancers, and even caffeine that end
Speaker 1: up in our toilets since our bodies can't entirely metabolize them,
Speaker 1: and after they're flushed, chemicals like fluoxetine end up in
Speaker 1: rivers and streams, and after that in the oceans. What
Speaker 1: effect that these chemicals have on ecosystems once they show
Speaker 1: up isn't well understood, but one sixteen study found that
Speaker 1: even small doses of the drug can render the notoriously
Speaker 1: aggressive Siamese fighting fish uncharacteristically chill. A new study published
Speaker 1: in the journal Ecology and Evolution examines the effect of
Speaker 1: fluoxetine on shore crabs on the Oregon Coast and finds
Speaker 1: exposure to the drug might be making them careless in
Speaker 1: their foraging habits. A Portland State University research team exposed
Speaker 1: shore crabs in a lab to trace amounts of fluoxetine
Speaker 1: at levels that have been detected on the organ shore.
Speaker 1: Over the course of sixty days, they found these crabs
Speaker 1: forged more during times of the day they typically stay hidden,
Speaker 1: exposing them to the threat of predation. These crabs also
Speaker 1: fought more with others in their species, sometimes killing or
Speaker 1: being killed in the process. A researcher, a Lease Grantic,
Speaker 1: a professor in Portland State University's Department of Environmental Sciences
Speaker 1: and Management, sudden to press release the changes we observed
Speaker 1: in their behaviors may mean that crabs living in harbors
Speaker 1: and estuaries contaminated with fluoxetine are at a greater risk
Speaker 1: of predation and mortality. Further research is needed to learn
Speaker 1: how this and other pharmaceutical waste will affect our oceans
Speaker 1: and what we can do about it. But for now,
Speaker 1: you can help a little by contacting your doctor or
Speaker 1: pharmacy to dispose of any unwanted medications instead of throwing
Speaker 1: them in the trash or toilet. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article Prozac making its way into oceans might
Speaker 1: be affecting crab behavior on how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: written by Jesselyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it is produced by Tyler Clang four more podcasts
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