Antidepressants In the Water Are Making Shrimp Suicidal

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.

Hard to say, without delving deeper...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Since you can't really put a shrimp on a shrink-couch and ask it about its feelings, it is very hard to say whether the shrimp are "suicidal" or whether their fear responses are being blunted.

More than a few antidepressants also have some anti-anxiety properties, which are often quite useful in a theraputic context; but for an organism that is tiny and made of meat, "anti-anxiety" and "pro-suicide" might be uncomfortably close...

Re:Antidepressants can make people suicidal

[Securityemo]

When the shrinks put me on SSRI to alleviate OCD, the reverse happened: I lost *all* motivation. I could not get up in the morning, and could easily lie 48 hours in bed without eating or drinking, on the edge of sleep. I felt like one of those Buddhist monks who go bury themselves alive in a cave, and self-mummify. I felt no negative emotions whatsoever; I knew the consequences of my behavior but didn't have any drive to stop. Needless to say, this was not good for my studies.
They removed it a month ago. I still feel glad whenever I feel any form of anxiety, however faint. Apparently, this side-effect is quite rare.

Re:Antidepressants can make people suicidal

[PopeRatzo]

When the shrinks put me on SSRI to alleviate OCD, the reverse happened: I lost *all* motivation. I could not get up in the morning, and could easily lie 48 hours in bed without eating or drinking, on the edge of sleep.

Unfortunately, the use of antidepressants is still pretty crude. Often it takes multiple tries before the doctor and patient find the right combination.

But they can still be lifesavers. When I was in cancer treatment over a decade ago, I got so depressed that I was absolutely prepared to kill myself. I'd even put by a stock of heavy tranquilizers with which to do the deed. A doctor's assistant was taking some information from me one day and noticed, alerting my primary care physician and they put me on an antidepressant. Within a few weeks I couldn't believe I had ever even considered suicide. Within a couple of months I was off the antidepressants and that was that. This was the late 90's and the cancer treatment was completely successful and I've never had another depressed day since then. There's a lot of problems with the use and overuse of antidepressants, but I'm pretty sure they saved my life (along with a very alert and dedicated doctor's assistant).

We've got to get people to stop flushing old drugs down the toilet or tossing them in the garbage though. They're finding so many pharmaceutical substances in drinking water and soil and now the oceans that we're heading for bigger problems than depression. I can't believe there aren't already good methods for disposal of medications widely in use. All the hormones and antibiotics in my pork chops are bad enough, I don't need to get a pharmaceutical cocktail every time I take a drink of water.