Hyperactive crustaceans, reckless fish: aquatic life completely shaken by antidepressants and antianxiety drugs | Animals

Anxiety medications, antidepressants, anti-seizure medication and bipolar disorder; it is all found in rivers, ditches and canals. The substances are so common in surface water in the Netherlands that they can pose a risk to animals and plants, according to research by, among others, Maastricht University (UM) and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

Three years ago, the Dutch counterpart of health institute Sciensano already concluded that painkillers, antibiotics and blood pressure reducers disrupt aquatic life. Now the scientists have mapped out for the first time which psychopharmaceuticals (medicines used to treat psychiatric disorders and psychological problems, ed.) occur in surface water. They compared national data on water quality with information on drug use from the National Health Care Institute.

The results of the study are startling. Aquatic life appears to be seriously confused by the concentrations of psychotropic drugs: from hyperactive crustaceans and reckless fish to a slowdown in the filtering speed of freshwater mussels and polyps that attach less easily to the bottom of a river or ditch.

Reckless fishing? Yes. The study argues that drugs for human mental illness have the same effects in fish and small crustaceans. “Psychopharmaceuticals influence the behavior of these organisms, which can make them more aggressive or, conversely, more passive. This can ultimately have an effect on several food chains,” say the researchers.

“Certain psychotropic drugs are made to calm people down or to give them more self-confidence,” explains Dirk Halet, strategic coordinator of the Flemish Knowledge Center for Water, on Radio 1. And you get the same effect with the fish: “If you are a small fish that suddenly gets a mega ego, that thinks you can handle the world, then you won’t swim away so quickly when you see a pike or other predatory fish coming. And so the fish becomes like a bird to the cat.”

The situation in Belgium is comparable to that in the Netherlands. Halet explains that one in ten people in our country – 1.2 million Belgians – take such medicines. And all substances that we as humans ingest, we also find in our waterways. It doesn’t even have to be a high concentration to affect aquatic life: drugs for mental illness are designed to be effective at low doses. Meanwhile, due to global warming, the water level of rivers is falling, causing the concentration of harmful substances to rise.

Earlier it also became known that there is a lot of hormone disruption in aquatic life, due to the contraceptive pill. “Then you get feminization in fish or fertility problems that have a major impact on the survival of certain populations,” says Halet.

It is therefore important to try to keep these harmful substances out of the environment as much as possible. Not easy, because we just pee out part of it. But we can do some things. Halet is already calling on people not to flush medicines down the toilet or sink. He also adds that there is currently a lot of discussion with pharmacists and the healthcare sector about initiatives regarding the return of (expired) medicines. “In this way we want to prevent people from flushing them or throwing them in the residual waste.”

At a higher level, a number of pilot projects have been started in Flanders on the filtering of psychopharmaceuticals in water treatment plants: which combination of technologies can be used to extract the multitude of resources in the most efficient way? And at European level there is also a legislative initiative that focuses specifically on the problem. “Europe specifically asks the Member States to make efforts to find out where investments are needed to remove substances from the environment that we know today have a negative impact.”

The researchers of the study are also looking at the doctors. UM researcher and psychiatrist Jurjen Luykx believes that they should be much more alert to the (quantity of) medicines they prescribe.

“How we prescribe medication also deserves attention. This concerns, for example, the question of whether and how quickly we can start phasing out,” says the researcher. “In addition, we can use the results of this study to investigate in which cases other medicines that work equally well can be given priority in treatment guidelines. It would be good if such guidelines take more account of the impact of treatments on the environment and climate in the future.”

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