Some Animals Can Suffer From Mental Illness, Too

Rhubot · September 21, 2015, 2:41am

It’s funny, if you read the story, it links to a BBC article that says:

That said, it is one thing to suggest that animals like dogs or even bees might suffer from emotional disorders like depression or anxiety. Other mental illnesses like schizophrenia seem to affect more complex forms of thought, so we might expect them to be exclusive to humans. But that may not be the case.

In a 2014 study, Vallender and his colleague Lisa Ogawa studied genes thought to be associated with schizophrenia and autism in 45 mammalian species.

If these genes had changed more in humans than in other species, it would imply that the disorders were exclusively human.

But that was not the case. The genes had changed in humans, but also in Old World monkeys, apes, and even distantly-related mammals like dolphins. So far it’s not clear what this actually means for these animals’ mental health, says Vallender. “All we know at this point is that the proteins seem to be changing.”

Study referenced is here: