Our increased use of antidepressants is having a knock-on effect on nature: scientists have found evidence of these drugs in the brain tissue of 10 different species of fish in the Great Lakes region. Antidepressant drugs, making their way through an increasing number of people’s bodies, getting excreted in small amounts into their toilets, and moving through the wastewater treatment process to lakes and rivers, are being found in multiple Great Lakes fish species’ brains, new research by the University of Buffalo has found. Diana Aga, lead author on the study, said, “These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains.” It’s troubling for humans and the environment alike. She added, “It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned.” The highest accumulation of chemicals was found in the brains of fish, followed by the liver, muscle and gonads. While the concentrations aren’t potentially harmful to humans eating the fish, they are problematic, said University at Buffalo chemistry professor Diana Aga, the lead author of the study published Aug. 16 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Researchers at the University of Buffalo found traces of active ingredients from antidepressant medications such as Zoloft and Prozac in the brains of bowfin, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rudd, rock bass, white bass, white perch, walleye, steelhead and yellow perch fish in the Niagara River, US News and World Report states. Researchers detected high concentrations of both the active ingredients and metabolites — byproducts of the parent drug — of popular antidepressant pharmaceuticals including Zoloft, Prozac, Celexa and Sarafem in the brains of fish caught in the Niagara River connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. While these factories generally focus on killing disease-causing bacteria and are removing solid waste, antidepressants in the urine of people are overlooked and not removed from the wastewater. The fish are getting exposed to these chemicals via the contamination of their natural habitat. “Fish are receiving this cocktail of drugs 24 hours a day, and we are now finding these drugs in their brains.”

Aga said she will be partnering with fish biologists to look at the minimum levels at which exposures to antidepressants affect fish behavior and biology.
Researchers report, in the Environmental Science & Technology journal, the discovery of antidepressant concentrations in 10 kinds of fish in the Niagara River, which links to the Great Lakes via Lakes Erie and Ontario. Speculated causes include inadequate treatment of water re-introduced into said bodies of water.