Antidepressants at environmentally relevant concentrations affect predator avoidance behavior of larval fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas)

Abstract

Abstract-The effects of embryonic and larval exposure to environmentally relevant (ng/L) concentrations of common antidepressants, fluoxetine, sertraline, venlafaxine, and bupropion (singularly and in mixture) on C-start escape behavior were evaluated in fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Embryos (postfertilization until hatching) were exposed for 5 d and, after hatching, were allowed to grow in control well water until 12 d old. Similarly, posthatch fathead minnows were exposed for 12 d to these compounds. High-speed (1,000 frames/s) video recordings of escape behavior were collected and transferred to National Institutes of Health Image for frame-byframe analysis of latency periods, escape velocities, and total escape response (combination of latency period and escape velocity). When tested 12 d posthatch, fluoxetine and venlafaxine adversely affected C-start performance of larvae exposed as embryos. Conversely, larvae exposed for 12 d posthatch did not exhibit altered escape responses when exposed to fluoxetine but were affected by venlafaxine and bupropion exposure. Mixtures of these four antidepressant pharmaceuticals slowed predator avoidance behaviors in larval fathead minnows regardless of the exposure window. The direct impact of reduced C-start performance on survival and, ultimately, reproductive fitness provides an avenue to assess the ecological relevance of exposure in an assay of relatively short duration.

Medicating the environment: assessing risks of pharmaceuticals to wildlife and ecosystems

“…An emerging topic discussed in this issue is how the probability of exposure of wildlife to environmental contaminants can be influenced by fitnessrelated traits such as foraging range, feeding behaviour and reproductive strategy, including spawning and dispersal patterns [9,14]. Freshwater taxa have been relatively well studied in terms of exposure to pharmaceuticals [9,10,45,52,55] compared with terrestrial [14,15,[56][57][58] or marine [9,32] species. In many aquatic taxa uptake of soluble, hydrophilic compounds occurs mainly via the gills or dermally (particularly in small organisms such as larvae), whereas uptake of less soluble, hydrophobic compounds more often occurs via a dietary route [59].…”

Environmentally relevant concentrations of citalopram partially inhibit feeding in the three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

“…SSRIs decrease territorial aggression (Lepage et al, 2005;Perreault et al, 2003) and the ability or willingness to catch prey is suppressed (Gaworecki and Klaine, 2008). Latency to the initiation of escape response is prolonged, escape velocity is lower (Painter et al, 2009) and SSRI treated piauçu fish (Leporinus macrocephalus) fail to react to a conspecific alarm substance (Barbosa et al, 2012).…”

Presence of Illicit Drugs in the Sarno River (Campania Region, Italy)

“…Moreover, toxic effects on the aquatic fauna, still unknown, are predictable. Indeed, it is possible that illicit drugs behave like pharmaceuticals widespread in the aquatic environment, affecting the behavior of exposed organisms [28] [29] and accumulating in fish tissues [30] [31].…”