Scientists can erase bad memories

[liberte]

Scientists believe they have found a way to dampen down the impact of bad memories in people's brains.

A US and Canadian team used a drug called propranolol to target unwanted memories, while leaving others intact.

They injected the drug, which is more often used to treat heart patients, while a volunteer was asked to recall a painful memory.

The Journal of Psychiatric Research study found that this seemed to disrupt the way the memory was then stored.


'Fear reactions are there to protect people from danger in the future'
Professor Chris Brewin, of University College London

The researchers, from McGill University, in Montreal, and Harvard University in Boston, hope their work could lead to new treatments for patients with psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress.

However, others have warned the research is still at a very early stage - and expressed concern that it could potentially be abused easily.

The researchers treated 19 crash or rape victims for 10 days with a drug, or a placebo.

The volunteers were asked to recall their memories of a traumatic event that had happened 10 years earlier.

A week later the researchers found that those people who were given a shot of propranolol showed fewer signs of stress, such as raised heart rate, when recalling their trauma.

The researchers believe that memories are initially stored in the brain in a malleable, fluid state before becoming hard-wired into the circuitry.

Then, when they are recalled, they once again become fluid - and capable of being altered.

They believe propranolol disrupts the biochemical pathways that allow a memory to "harden" after it has been recalled.

More work needed

In a separate study, a New York University team said they had successfully erased a single memory from the brains of rats while leaving the rest of their memory intact.

Dr Monica Thompson, a consultant clinical psychologist at London's Traumatic Stress Clinic, stressed that post traumatic stress disorder was a complex condition with many other symptoms other than bad memories.

She said that even if a treatment successfully dampened down bad memories patients could still be left with potentially debilitating symptoms, such as high fear levels.

Professor Chris Brewin, of University College London, said the research was still at a very early stage, and much more work was needed to demonstrate that it could lead to tangible benefits.

"One also does not know what effect such a drug could have in the long term," he said.

"After all, fear reactions are there to protect people from danger in the future."

BBC NEWS | Health | Scientists can erase bad memories

[amalgamate]

That's scary... how can the drug differentiate the 'good' memories from the 'bad' ones? don't think you'd want to mess with your mind now-

[Bent_Bladi]

not only that... your worst and most painful memories are what make you who you are today. they give you wisdom and patience... if you get rid of them somehow....... well you'll probably experience that same event again.

this is JUST like that jim carey movie "the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"... weeeeeeeeeird movie

[Al-khiyal]

...this is JUST like that jim carey movie "the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"...

July 4, 2007 -- You cannot change your past, but what if you could alter the way you remember it? What if you could even delete some memories entirely? Many people who have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder seek psychological help to do just that. In North America, scientists are going further, looking for ways to alter memories neurochemically.

Recent studies at McGill and Harvard universities have used propranolol, a drug that is normally used to treat heart disease, to help people who have suffered a trauma. They found that those who took the drug during a period of "controlled recall" showed fewer signs of stress the next time that they were asked to remember the event. The researchers suggest that the drug may have helped "dampen" the memories - that is, removed their ability to cause distress.

This is what most clinicians who work with trauma victims try to do. They do not discourage people from remembering what happened but they help them learn to tolerate the pain. We know that once patients can do this, they can move on. However, I am less convinced that someone will move on if he simply cannot remember what happened. The human brain is designed to explain and to understand. If there are missing chunks in the memory, I think it will cause more distress than it will relieve.

Even so, at New York University, they appear to be trying to erase memories altogether - in rats, at least. The rats were trained to associate two musical tones with a mild electrical shock; from then on, they would brace themselves when they heard the tone. Then half the rats were given a drug called U0126 while they heard one of the tones. Thereafter, they no longer braced themselves, leading researchers to conclude that U0126 had "deleted" the memory it targeted.

The connection that has been made between these two studies is worrying. Deleting memories did not help Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey much in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Indeed, would many of us really want gaps in our memories, particularly if others around us could still remember what we no longer could? Because the rats cannot talk to us, we do not know whether they are unable to remember what they learned, or whether they still remember but just cannot react to what they know. So, caution, please. We understand so little about the marvellously complex human brain.

We should think twice about amnesia drugs

Linda Blair is a clinical psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

[amalgamate]

but then people would get lazy in teaching themselves to how to 'cope' with the shortcommings and trageties of life. Thearapists and psychologists probably wont be too happy with such medication that 'deletes memories'.

[Bent_Bladi]

la2... 3an jad this "discovery" is really destructive. I think only dumb people will "experiment" with it...

whoever agrees with erasing bad memories should see the jim carey movie... seriously...