medicines that deletes bad memories
By mschiqui
@mschiqui (1284)
Philippines
July 3, 2007 10:25pm CST
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 d- r- u- g 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 d- r -u -g propranolol is used along with therapy to "dampen" memories of trauma victims. They treated 19 accident or r-a-p-e 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 d -r- u -g, which is also used to treat amnesia, while others were given a placebo.
A week later, they found that patients given the d -r- u -g 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 d -r- u -g called U0126 was administered.
The rats were trained to associate two musical tones with a mild electrical shock so that when they heard either of the tones they would brace themselves for a shock. The researchers then gave half the rats the d -r -u -g when playing one of the musical tones.
After the treatment, the rats that had been given the d -r -u -g no longer associated that particular tone with an imminent shock but still braced themselves upon hearing the second tone, demonstrating only one memory had been deleted. What are your views about this,do you think it is really helpful?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@lucy02 (5015)
• United States
4 Jul 07
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Most of the time those bad memories are there for our protection. We learn from them. It teaches us to be careful and compassionate toward others. Also if it erased the bad memories, will it not erase the good ones too?
@diannebcrs (1549)
• Philippines
4 Jul 07
wow, that's really informative, thanks for posting that here, i'm sure a lot of us really appreciate your research. i'm sympathetic towards those that have to deal with traumatic pasts such as abused kids, r - a - p - e - d victims, or those that have been nabbed or torturd maybe. it should bring them relief and a chance at a fresh start. although i think that this should be sold to limited market only because i think everyone should appreciate bad memories too because it's part of life and part of who a person becomes. we all learn from unpleasant experiences too and a lot of these we should simply be thankful for because they help us become wiser. it's like an easy way out for depressed people and it's actually not letting us deal which i think is wrong.
1 person likes this
@saurabh_5b (81)
• India
4 Jul 07
it seems like an impression of the movie "the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" deleting bad memories........
u can delete them yourself by realizing that bad things do happen but better life in waiting to be lived....
1 person likes this
@hamdi681989 (1)
• Italy
4 Jul 07
i read it this morning and i asked my self how they found it and what if it delete also the good memory .
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