Study: Chimps Used in Medical Research Show Signs of Post-Traumatic Stress

Proposed US law would limit experimentation with the primates

June 29, 2011

Chimpanzees used in medical experiments often experience maternal separation, social isolation and solitary confinement.

The two-year study examined the cases of more than 350 chimpanzees including former lab chimps now living in sanctuaries and those in the wild.

The study's lead author, Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, directs research policy for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a private group that promotes alternatives to the use of animals in research, education and training.

Ferdowsian undertook the study primarily for ethical reasons.

“Chimpanzees are taken from their mothers at a very early age, sometimes just after they’re born," she says. "Chimpanzees are also forced into isolation many times as a result of being used in Hepatitis and other protocols. So there are clear harms associated with the use of chimpanzees in research, and we wanted to look at exactly how chimpanzees are affected by all the harms that are inflicted upon them over the course of a lifetime.”

Negra's story

In collecting their data, Ferdowsian and her colleagues relied on feedback from the chimps’ caretakers, who - in many cases - had known the animals for years.

One of the subjects was Negra, who spent 30 years as a test subject in biomedical research before being transferred to a chimp sanctuary.