Drug Dampens Down Traumatic Memories

A drug has been developed that scientists believe can lessen the effects of traumatic memories, reports the BBC.

The scientists working on the project are from the United States and Canada. They have created a drug that pinpoints bad memories while leaving other nice memories alone. The drug is called propranolol. The study was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Propranolol isn't entirely new; it has been used previously to treat those with heart problems.

The memory effects of propranolol were discovered when the researchers injected the drug into a volunteer. When the drug was injected that volunteer was asked to remember a bad experience.

The joint research project included scientists from McGill University in Montreal and Boston's Harvard University. The study found that when the drug was used it altered the way in which the traumatic memory was stored in the brain.

The researchers working on the project now hope that they can find a way that this drug can be used to help a number of psychiatric problems. For example using the propranolol to treat patients suffering from post-traumatic stress.

In the study 19 volunteers that had either been the victim of a rape of crash were given propranolol for ten days. Some of the volunteers were only given a placebo.

After the treatment the subjects were asked to remember their traumatic event, which in all the cases had happened ten year previously. The subjects receiving the treatment showed significantly less stress when they talked about their traumatic experience.

To understand how the drug works it is necessary to understand how the memory works. When a memory is first created in the brain it is fluid meaning it can be altered. Then the memory is hard wired to the brain. However, when a memory is recalled it again becomes fluid and thus alterable.

When propranolol is used and a traumatic memory is recalled it alters the memory while it is in its fluid state.

The research being done on dampened down bad memories is still in its infancy. The long term effects are still unknown. One expert commenting on the research, Professor Chris Brewin from University College London said, "One also does not know what effect such a drug could have in the long term. After all, fear reaction are there to protect people from danger in the future." (BBC)

Even though the drug does not remove the traumatic memory and other issue that arose due to the trauma from a person's brain the result look promising as a way to help trauma suffers cope better with their experiences.

Sources

BBC report about bad memory dampening drug.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6264530.stm

Telegraph report on memory drug
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/07/01/scimemo101.xml