From Prescription to Pollution: The Accumulation of Antidepressants in Crawfish

Accumulation of pharmaceuticals has contaminated land and aquatic environments. The urgency of understanding the impact on organisms intensifies as the concentrations in the environment rise. This study focused on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Many SSRIs are commonly prescribed as antidepressants or antianxiety medications, making their use widespread and prevalent. The organism of study, Procambarus clarkii (“crawfish”), is an aquatic invertebrate commonly found in bodies of freshwater in North America and is a common neuronal model organism. P. clarkii has been used in numerous chemical studies, with analyses ranging from toxicological to transcriptomic. Here, P. clarkii was exposed to 10%, 100%, and 1000% of environmentally relevant concentrations of commonly prescribed SSRIs including, citalopram, paroxetine, and sertraline. The accumulated biological concentrations were analyzed to examine the extent of uptake into the ventral nerve cord and cerebral ganglia as well as into the hemolymph. Further investigation aimed to determine if P. clarkii could be a suitable model organism for biomonitoring antidepressant concentrations in aquatic environments. The support of P. clarkii as a suitable biomonitor allows further research into what metabolic and neurological processes these chemicals may be affecting in similar aquatic invertebrates.