Posted on 07/02/2007 7:05:02 PM PDT by james500
Do you have a really bad memory, or past heartache, that you would prefer to forget?
Researchers at Harvard and McGill University (in Montreal) are working on an amnesia drug that blocks or deletes bad memories. The technique seems to allow psychiatrists to disrupt the biochemical pathways that allow a memory to be recalled.
In a new study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, the drug propranolol is used along with therapy to "dampen" memories of trauma victims. They treated 19 accident or rape victims for ten days, during which the patients were asked to describe their memories of the traumatic event that had happened 10 years earlier. Some patients were given the drug, which is also used to treat amnesia, while others were given a placebo.
A week later, they found that patients given the drug showed fewer signs of stress when recalling their trauma.
Similar research led by Professor Joseph LeDoux has been carried out at New York University on rats; scientists were able to remove a specific memory from the brains of rats while leaving the rest of the animals' memories intact. An amnesia drug called U0126 was administered.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
They're too late: there's a place in Lynchburg, Tennessee that beat them to the market...
Understand.
As long as I remember, I’m much less likely to make the same mistakes again.
Stupidity should be painful, it’s a teaching mechanism. If it hurts, you will probably avoid doing the same stupid thing in future.
Bad idea. Memories both good and bad make us who we are and teach us to cope.
You are wise, cripplecreek. Trials are what build our character.
It may have been a great TV show but watching it does not make you an expert in the field. Emotional appeals courtesy of the MSM don’t equal squat.
I know many vets, from several wars, who have lived through the hell you describe. The ones who succeed later are the ones who choose to deal with it and progress.
Read “Stolen Valor” to get a good idea of how many PTSD sufferers really exist. The author highlights one vet who received multiple benefits from the VA for PTSD and later was exposed as a fraud. He first claimed to be on the scene when a man died on the flight deck. Later; it was revealed that he was on the ship and didn’t see it but "heard about it" and it “really upset him.” The victim’s best friend was on the scene and was sprayed with his friends blood during the accident. He was emotionally devastated but chose to heal.
I’m not saying PTSD doesn’t exist, and I’m not saying dealing with the pain is easy. However there are far too many people who are lying or using PTSD as a crutch.
They’re also researching using MDMA (Ecstasy) as a tool to help you examine and overcome past “bad” experiences, like Vets with PTSD.
An interesting point, I wonder if it would increase suicides due to a delayed effect of not having anything to benchmark the better times in your life against???
I hadn’t really thought of it that way but it does make some sense. The last thing we need is people killing themselves over gas prices or getting yelled at by the boss.
Although I have overcome most of my nightmares, I would be interested to learn more … will investigate. Most nights are good, some not so good.
Thanks for the heads-up.
1992-2000. And I’ll take the entire bottle, please.
It’s safe to assume from your post that you served through difficult circumstances. God bless you.
Read “Stolen Valor.” The writer is a Viet Nam vet who investigated the “Wild-Eyed, Burnt-Out” vets who showed at the hippy-styled protests wearing faded and torn field jackets. He found the few of these protesters that actually served had remained stateside throughout the war.
And your inference is what?
I need this drug to erase the memory of seeing Kathy Bates in “About Schmidt.”
LOL!
I feel fortunate that I don’t remember much of the Seventies.
What a great idea, engineered alzheimer’s. Could I use it to bury all memories of the Klintoons and Jammah Cahtah?
Fer sure, dude. Too much propolanol will cause one to write gibberish.
Funny... the movie that likely inspired the research... Sunshine of the Spotless Mind includes a nice story arc that explains the pitfalls of using such a treatment.
It follows the logic of those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
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