Why These Salmon Are On Anxiety Meds

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A fish walks into a pharmacy ... well, not exactly. Fish aren't being prescribed anti-anxiety drugs. But they are experiencing the effects. Researchers have found more than 900 different pharmaceutical ingredients in rivers and streams around the world, though they're not yet sure how this could change the behavior of fish and other aquatic animals in the wild.
"We can't, you know, dump a bunch of pharmaceuticals into the river," says Jack Brand, biologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Instead, Jack's team did the next best thing – with some surprising results.

This episode was reported by NPR science correspondent Jon Lambert. Check out more of his reporting.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	At NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we sort through a lot of television.
0:04.3	And we've found some recent TV comedies we really like that you don't want to miss.
0:09.9	And we'll tell you where to watch them in one handy guide.
0:13.2	Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.
0:17.8	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:23.1	Hey, shortwaver's Emily Kwong here.
0:25.2	And today I am joined by NPR science reporter Jonathan Lambert.
0:29.1	Hey, John.
0:29.7	Hey, Emily.
0:30.4	John, I must thank you for all the hilarious and fascinating science stories you've been bringing us lately.
0:36.0	Oh.
0:36.2	Like chimps contagiously peeing or iguanas sailing the high seas or this most recent banger.
0:43.8	Salmon on drugs.
0:45.5	What's that about?
0:46.8	Yeah.
0:47.7	Salmon on drugs, specifically anti-anxiety drugs.
0:51.9	How are salmon getting a hold of, not that they have hands, but how are they getting
0:55.7	a hold of anti-anxiety pills?
0:57.6	Basically through us.
0:59.2	So when humans take medication, like for anxiety or bacterial infections, our bodies
1:04.6	don't use all of it, and we end up peeing out some of the chemicals.
1:08.5	That can end up in wastewater, which can get into rivers and streams,
	...

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