News release

From: The Royal Society

Antidepressant exposure suppresses boldness and behavioural individuality across social contexts in fish

Biology Letters

Pharmaceutical pollution is a growing threat to the environment globally. We found that exposure to venlafaxine, an antidepressant widely detected in the environment, reduced boldness in the southern pygmy perch. Exposure also reduced the variation of activity and boldness between individuals. Interestingly, these effects appeared to vary across social contexts. Following exposure, fish exposed to venlafaxine also showed poorer body condition compared to unexposed fish. As behavioural variation supports adaptation to environmental changes, and as body condition is closely linked to fitness, these changes may potentially have implications for the persistence of populations inhabiting polluted environments.