Antidepressants In the Water Are Making Shrimp Suicidal 182
Antidepressants may help a lot of people get up in the morning but new research shows they are making shrimp swim into that big bowl of cocktail sauce in the sky. Alex Ford, a marine biologist at the University of Portsmouth, found that shrimp exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine are 5 times more likely to swim towards light instead of away from it. Shrimp usually swim away from light as it is associated with birds or fishermen.
No Fear (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it's that they want to die.
They probably just don't fear the light anymore.
What a horrible a title... (Score:4, Insightful)
When I saw the headline, I wondered just how a shrimp becomes "suicidal".
Suicide is one intentionally taking their own life, not making behavioral or life-style choices that may increase the chance of an early demise. Unless their intent is to swim toward the light so that they can be killed, "suicidal" is quite sensationalist.
Otherwise, we could start describing all kinds of poor decision making and unhealthy lifestyle choices of humans as "suicidal."
This should be Science, not Idle. (Score:5, Insightful)
Lots of shrimp are already being affected by this. People take the antidepressants which then get into the wastewater which gets into the ocean. That makes it a real environmental concern (albeit a minor one; other ones are justifiably topping the list at the moment) and not a joke.
IMO it just goes to show that the law of unintended consequences is damn near universally applicable.
Re:So BP is SAVING crustaceans? (Score:2, Insightful)
It seems more likely that there is a general tendency for your last half dozen or so comments to have been moderated down.
Re:Antidepressants can make people suicidal (Score:4, Insightful)
My landlord killed himself with valium a few months ago, after a 12 year addiction. It was pretty obvious where things were headed, but his dealer^H^H^H^H^H^Hdoctor kept supplying him anyway. Eventually the temptation to keep upping the dose and feeling good overpowered his desire to live. A did a little research and found that this is a shockingly common problem.
Moral of the story: benzodiazephines suck. And your doctor may be more interested in paying off his student loans and buying a boat than being honest with himself about what's good for his patients.
Re:lifestyle choices of humans may be "suicidal" (Score:3, Insightful)
Many human lifestyle choices may be "suicidal". Smoking tobacco causes heart attack, strokes, and many cancers. This is slow suicide, but it's still suicide.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suicide [merriam-webster.com]
The usage that pertains to this discussion is:
"the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind"
Smoking, watching too much TV, drinking and texting (while driving), having an unhealthy diet, and being an Alaskan Fisherman might all be choices that may considerably increase your chances of meeting an early demise.
However, calling these things suicide, when they lack the actual intent to kill one's self, but calling any of those things suicide is just dumbing down the meaning of the word.
Even deliberate acts that lead to one being killed are not suicide, unless it was with the intent of ending one's life. For example, driving with your headlights off at midnight while high on drugs on a dare is not suicide, even if such a stupid act kills them.
Suicide requires:
1) An act or an instance.
2) A voluntary intent to kill one's self.
As for the original article, unless the antidepressants also gave them sentience so that they would realize, "Holy Bejeesus! I'm a freaking shrimp! Why didn't anyone tell me!?", then I doubt they have intent.
Re:Antidepressants can make people suicidal (Score:3, Insightful)
"How is this a troll?"
Let it go, dude.
People get seriously unpredictable when you attack their drug of choice, especially when there is addiction involved.
I happen to agree with you, by the way. Doctors (at least the ones I have been to) are far too liberal with pharmaceuticals. Ever notice the level of blatant marketing in the doctor's office these days? Advertisements on the walls, the clock, every pad of paper, the magazines in the waiting room...
I actually use that as a sort of gauge of "concern" when I enter a doctor's office. The less adverts, the more I feel the concern is my health, not a profit.