Occurrence of antidepressant drugs in the environment - A review

Abstract

Lately, the identification of emerging pollutants in environmental matrices has become frequent. Among these pollutants, the presence of drugs is highly relevant, because these categories of contaminants comprised thousands of active substances highly consumed worldwide. In the last decades, there has been a significant increase in the prescription and consumption of neuroactive drugs, such as antidepressants, and due to their direct action on the nervous system, neuroactive drugs are cited as a major environmental concern. Several studies have reported the presence of neuroactive drugs in wastewater treatment plants, surface waters, sediments and tissues of aquatic organisms. Environmental research involving drugs are linked to their low biodegradability and its persistence in the environment, with the potential risk of ecotoxicological effects. This paper reviews the literature related to environmental occurrence of pharmaceuticals, focusing on antidepressants incidence as well as their effects on non- target organisms. Moreover, it contributes to the scientific literature addressing the most widespread analytical techniques in this research field as well as the need for more comprehensive studies focused in detection, destination, distribution and elucidation of the likely effects caused by residual drugs in the environment.