Any thoughts about this ?? : Animal Madness: Zoochosis, stereotypic behavior, and problems with zoos.
A quote from the article. “finding out that the gorillas, badgers, giraffes, belugas, or wallabies on the other side of the glass are taking Valium, Prozac, or antipsychotics to deal with their lives as display animals is not exactly heartwarming news.” We do know, however, that the animal pharmaceutical industry is booming. In 2010, it did almost $6 billion in sales in the United States. I had no idea this was common place, obviously not just in zoo's. I wonder what % of the 6 billion comes from zoos?
If zoo animals were being medicated as so many humans in the G7nations are then shouldn't the concern be about the humans' emotional mess before we worry about zoned out orangutans???
Lots of domesticated dogs are medicated with SSRI's as well. Should we not keep dogs? I'm sure a starving deer or a cat in the wild is also depressed. These drugs are proven to not be that effective in most cases. You can't rewire someone's brain. We have a primitive understanding of the human brain. They're simply the best we have. We need better drugs. If anti-depressants/anti-psychotics were that effective then of course the patient would not stop taking them and LOVE them. Heroin was originally designed as an anti-depressant. Unfortunately it only works for 10 minutes and then you have the negative feedback mechanism of the brain.(drug tolerance)
Antidepressants do work, but only in a limited set of patients. For example, if the patient has what is known as "reactive depression" for example "I'm depressed because my spouse cheated on me." Individuals in this type of situation do not really benefit from drug therapy. Other times depression will appear because of some kind of brain problem, typically in humans the onset will be around adolescence to early adulthood. These patients might benefit from some kind of pharmacological intervention. Also, there is speculation that depression might have an evolutionary benefit. During depressive periods we tend (or at least Westerners tend) to be more pragmatic about whatever scenario we are in. Also depression is fairly common, at least in Americans, I can't help but wonder if depression isn't just a fact of life that we can't be totally free of. I think the real problem isn't so much being depressed (or having any type of abnormal mood) as it is not being able to resolve it after a reasonable period of time (the DSM says two weeks). But enough of my musings about mental health. The article made me bristle, it feels like a piece of propaganda to me. Maybe we could compare American zoo animals to places where people are less intervention happy and see what comes up.
That's a very simplistic look at environmental vs chemical depression. In fact it's the opposite of what you stated. In many cases like that person whose spouse cheated, then they take ssri's for a few months and they falsely believe the drugs helped when in fact time had simply past as well as a placebo effect. True chemical depression is much harder to treat and in some cases treatment fails. We don't know what we are doing. We don't understand the chemical make up of the brain and the different type of chemical depressions and what's going on. This science is it's infancy. They don't work in many patients. Some people do benefit though and it helps them. That's for sure. If it is a cure, why do so many people on them still commit suicide or still feel depressed? Does this person even remember/know what happiness is? ALL Happiness is chemically based. Environment has an effect on that base line.(base line being average feelings assuming no major enviormental problems). There's a reason someone in abject poverty whose alone with no significant other is happier than a millionaire in many cases. Different people have different base lines. In the future will have a drug that will make you a very happy person because it's nothing more than chemicals that make you happy. Environmental stimuli simply triggers release of happy chemicals. The human condition is one of unhappiness, anxiety, aggression, prone to violence/war ect. We are not happy animals. Some are happier than others though. Some are suicidal and some are truly happy. Maybe we need some dolphin DNA SSRI's do work in some chemically based depressed cases and not in others that are also chemically based for unknown reason(biochemical pathways we don't understand), They're not a cure for depression though. They are the best we have right now. More research needs to be done. This really has nothing to do with zoo's, but op brought this up
Harley | Patients | Animal Hospitals | Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium This is interesting. When Harley came to Mote Aquarium Moonshine was given tranquilizer while he was being introduced to her. It doesn't seem to have been a permanent thing though. It seems from other stuff I have read about him that he is somewhat territorial and takes his time getting to know other dolphins.
And an other article about antipsychotics....... : Animals in zoos are often on antipsychotics | neuroecology
How 'often'? Shall we treat it seriously, or some made-up story? Just think of the cost of pills for big animal, unknown reaction to drugs in wild species, possibility of side effects killing a usually long-living and valuable animal... Occassional sick animals get medication, but I never heard of zoo giving it regularily, especially only as a replacement of environmental enrichment.
