New Drug Deletes Bad Memories

[Black Hawk]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...tesbadmemories

Miracle drug that helps traumatized individuals or Mind control drug used by the government to control us?

You decide, and do any of you have something you'd like to forget?

[Kennylz]

The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.

[VALIS]

Awesome.
Although alcohol costs less and tastes twice as good so why spend money on something you don't need.

[Kennylz]

You know, it would be incredibly easy for this stuff to be put into the water supply to make entire masses forget things.

Seems a little too powerful.

[Niles Crane]

Awesome, now I don't have to personally induce amnesia for all those years of molestation.

[Banned]

Thread moved to the Athenaeum.

[The Fish]

That article's title is misleading. Propranolol is hardly a new drug; it's a beta-blocker drug used by millions of people, mostly for the treatment of various heart conditions. What seems to be new in this case is the methodology of its use and concomitant psychotherapeutic techniques, which is quite interesting. Bad dreams are a known (but as far as I know still unexplained) side effect of many beta-blockers; I wonder if this is somehow related to its effects in this case?

[VALIS]

That article's title is misleading. Propranolol is hardly a new drug; it's a beta-blocker drug used by millions of people, mostly for the treatment of various heart conditions. What seems to be new in this case is the methodology of its use and concomitant psychotherapeutic techniques, which is quite interesting. Bad dreams are a known (but as far as I know still unexplained) side effect of many beta-blockers; I wonder if this is somehow related to its effects in this case?

Is it scietifically possible to create a drug that erases select memories?
That seems a bit far fetched to me.

Maybe a drug capable of erasing all memories but specific,select ones?

[The Fish]

Is it scietifically possible to create a drug that erases select memories?
That seems a bit far fetched to me.

Maybe a drug capable of erasing all memories but specific,select ones?

Not any time soon. Since we know very little about memory formation, being able to specifically block memories will be totally impossible for the foreseeable future.

So I actually went and checked out this article. It turns out that the characterization of this as an "amnesia drug" is pretty far-fetched. Here's how the study actually worked, starting with a little background:

Propranolol is a beta-blocker. These drugs work by blocking receptors in the body known as beta-1 and beta-2. These receptors are stimulated by epinephrine (formerly adrenaline) released from the adrenal glands, especially under stressful situations (this is an automatic response of the sympathetic portion of our nervous system). For example, if I see a bear running at me, my adrenal gland releases a surge of epinephrine, which mainly stimulates four types of receptors (alpha-1, alpha-2, beta-1, and beta-2) found throughout my body. Beta-1 receptors in my heart, for instance, cause the heart to increase its rate and contractile force, while beta-2 receptors in the blood vessels of my muscles causes vasodilation, allowing more blood to my muscles so I can run away. Obviously, there's a strong emotional content to these responses (i.e. I'm scared out of my wits). Now propranolol is used for heart conditions because it helps slow the heart down (mainly by blocking beta-1 receptors) in people with weak hearts or high blood pressure. The exact physiology is quite complicated, so I won't go into it in detail, but suffice to say propranolol is very widely used, and counteracts the effects of epinephine.

Now the study in question cited previous studies showing that giving propranolol to people very soon (within hours) of a traumatic event reduced the physiologic response (increased heart rate, vasodilation, etc.) of people when they subsequently imagined the event. Basically, by dulling their sympathetic nervous response the first time around, they actually managed to reduce the same response the second (or more) time around.

Here, the researchers decided to go a step further. They figured, if giving propranolol right after the event reduces physiologic anxiety during subsequent recollections, what would happen if we gave the drug during the recollection, would that be effective, too? So they got some people with post-traumatic stress disorder, and asked them to recall being raped, or shot, etc. They predictably had a physiologic response; their muscles tensed, and they had increased heart rates, etc. as they remembered. Some people, though, got propranolol at the session, while others got a placebo. When they called them back in a week later, they asked them to once again recall the event. The people who got propranolol had a significantly lower physiologic response than the placebo group. This suggests that you don't have to give the drug right after the event; even doing it during a recollection session can reduce subsequent physiologic responses.

While this is useful for the treatment of PTSD, it's hardly an "amnesia drug." The people didn't forget their trauma, they simply had less muscle tension and tachycardia when remembering it. As I noted earlier, we have a very, very long way to go before we can erase memories (especially specific ones) with a targeted drug. I hope this helped you guys understand this better (if you managed to make it all the way through, that is...)

[VALIS]

Typical!
These goddamn scientists are trying to bluster and bluff about their accomplishments with smoke and mirrors!

[Banned]

Could somebody pass me a link to a place where I can buy this?

I'm serious.

[Amorphos]

if it or another drug could do this, then all i will say is, from what do you learn more; battles lost or battles won?

even if the latter, then you will still loose all you would have gained from life’s defeats.

anyway all you need is 3 X lsd once weekly for 3 years - it may not kill all bad memories but what are left will be rather frightening telegraph poles and shrubberies.

or just sniff glue - that'll kill em all. simple.

[Axe-Battler]

evil ****.

**** modern medicine.

They need to ban that drug immediately!

[Thanatos]

Wow. Can anybody say brainwashing?

Life is a dual nature. You need to take the good with the bad.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

This is about traumatised people and offering them an opportunity to help them lose their trauma, not about some lifestyle-drug you just drop in after your GF left you.

Despite the first study being interesting especially as it uses a well established and safe drug, it's not that new and shows but a side aspect of an allready known treatment option.

I think the study using U0126 is way more interesting considering fundamental research (which is why it's published *ahem* way better...).


[edit]: To elaborate, as the Fish allready stated, propanolol doesn't alter the memory itself but the bodies physiological response to it. The interesting find in this paper is that it can do so not only by being administered directly after the traumatic event, but may also be of effective use in psychotherapy of trauma victims.

The second study deals with basic research and the drug is mostly used to uncover a mechanism involved and far from being of possible use in patients (systemically blocking the MAPK-pathway isn't such a good idea...).

[Thanatos]

It doesn't matter. That drug has a very deadly potential for abuse and it will be used that way.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Well - but propanolol isn't capable to erase memories, only undesired physiological reactions bound to them as they're seen in individuals who have experienced traumatizing situations.

I can't think of any situation in which that could be abused - +rep to anyone who finds one.

The second study which was conducted in rats and under very narrow experimental conditions is really interesting, but absolutely inapplicable to deletion of specific memories in a human.

[Thanatos]

Well - but propanolol isn't capable to erase memories, only undesired physiological reactions bound to them as they're seen in individuals who have experienced traumatizing situations.

I can't think of any situation in which that could be abused - +rep to anyone who finds one.

The second study which was conducted in rats and under very narrow experimental conditions is really interesting, but absolutely inapplicable to deletion of specific memories in a human.

Mmmm... the thing still sounds like Brave New World to me... :hmmm: