• Question: Do mental illnesses occur in other animals as well as us? And if so can they be identified?

    Asked by 10cbee to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 18 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jason King

      Jason King answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      I think they probably do, although at what level depends on the intelligence of the animal. I would say that the more intelligent the animal, the more emotionally complex it would be. (I’m not sure if sheep have moods for example, but chimps certainly do). The difficulty would really be identifying them. Identifying mental illness in humans is really tough, and is often one person, or a groups opinion as you can’t just do a blood test.

    • Photo: Nathan Green

      Nathan Green answered on 19 Mar 2013:

      Almost definitely. My friend had a really depressed dog. Its tricky identifying mental states without language. it would be hard to attribute particular behaviour to mental illness instead of something else.

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