A truly interesting article in Wired Magazine regarding the science of memory. There have been big breakthrough by neuro scientists as to how memory works, the mechanisms by how they're are formed, recalled, etc. which will lead to major breakthroughs in the treatment of various psychological conditions, such as PTSD, various addictions, etc.
It's well worth reading, and also brings up obvious ethical questions: would a pill that literally let you simply wipe out an unpleasant memory (and that's going to be a reality sooner than you might think) be a good thing? As with any medical treatment, it brings up potential ethical considerations.
Most it is of intellectual interest, with discussion of neuro chemicals, proteins essential to both forming and recalling memory and so forth vs practical applications right now.
However, info on potential treatments that may be of value shortly, for example, use of the old beta blocker (propranolol) to modify traumatic memories:
"In 2008, Alain Brunet, a clinical psychologist at McGill University, identified 19 patients who had been suffering for several years from serious stress and anxiety disorders such as PTSD. (Their traumas included sexual assaults, car crashes, and violent muggings.) People in the treatment group were given the drug propranolol, a beta-blocker that has long been used for conditions like high blood pressure and performance anxiety; it inhibits norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter involved in the production of strong emotions. Brunet asked subjects to write a detailed description of their traumatic experiences and then gave them a dose of propranolol. While the subjects were remembering the awful event, the drug suppressed the visceral aspects of their fear response, ensuring that the negative feeling was somewhat contained.
One week later, all the patients returned to the lab and were exposed once again to a description of the traumatic event. Here’s where things got interesting: Subjects who got the placebo demonstrated levels of arousal consistent with PTSD (for example, their heart rate spiked suddenly), but those given propranolol showed significantly lower stress responses. Although they could still remember the event in vivid detail, the emotional memory located in the amygdala had been modified. The fear wasn’t gone, but it no longer seemed crippling. “The results we get sometimes leave me in awe,” Brunet says. “These are people who are unable to lead normal lives, and yet after just a few sessions they become healthy again.”
This therapy is still under evaluation, not perfect, and larger scale studies underway as I understand it. See article for additional details. Interesting, but potentially controversial, the use of MDMA for PTSD:
"In one 2010 clinical trial, subjects suffering from PTSD were given MDMA (street name: ecstasy) while undergoing talk therapy. Because the drug triggers a rush of positive emotion, the patients recalled their trauma without feeling overwhelmed. As a result, the remembered event was associated with the positive feelings triggered by the pill. According to the researchers, 83 percent of their patients showed a dramatic decrease in symptoms within two months. That makes ecstasy one of the most effective PTSD treatments ever devised"
That was some of the info that potentially head utility in the near future I thought some might find interesting. It's not from a peer reviewed journal but a lay magazine, so keep that in mind.
Full article found: The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever
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Originally Posted by ICANHITHIMMAN
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