Monkeys Treated for Depression - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
Black Howler monkeys at an ecological park in Argentina have been given anti-depressant medication after two female monkeys passed away. The other monkeys, particularly the males, had been acting strangely after the death of the females, but the caretakers thought it might have been due to something in their diet. Four male monkeys reportedly died from “sadness.” But now the animal caretakers are noticing a positive change in the monkeys after giving them a treatment that was prescribed to them by a psychiatrist. The treatment is based on sertraline, which is “a mineral derived from the serotonin used in humans to reverse different symptoms originating from compulsive disorders or depression,” as noted by a veterinarian in the Clarin newspaper. The Black Howler monkeys live in a close-knit group on a 30-acre Ecological Park, located 400 miles from Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires.
Monkeys have been known to get depressed and were the subjects in a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center study done on depression.
