New Drug Deletes Bad Memories

New Drug Deletes Bad Memories

www.livescience.com

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ive said it before and I will say it again. If this new technology is just now being released publicly, then assume that the government has had and been using this drug for at least 20 years.

Implications:

Well 1st off think of every alien abduction story weve ever heard of and think how this drug may have been used to cover-up the memories.

Imagine an enemy that can erase your mind, or at least the negative thoughts from a recent traumatic event perpetrated by these enemies; you are left without anger for what has been done to you. Torture, rape, murder, betrayal.... ERASED!

Creepy stuff!

In closing I think we should let the honorable Governor of California judge the moral issues behind this new tech.
If you RECALL he has been through this before as a secret agent on Mars.

"DAMMIT Cohagen, Give these people air!"


www.livescience.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind isn't such a surreal movie anymore.

MKUltra is proof that the CIA was toying with this kind of thing as far back as the 60s. I'm sure they have been able to do this for years.

I wonder if scientists ever give a moment's thought to the societal consequences of their Frankenstein obsessions before indulging them... Reminds me of those words Oppenheimer uttered when he saw the first nuclear test explosions in the New Mexico desert: "I have become Shiva, the destroyer of worlds."

Can't stop progress, I guess! Give us the cure, we'll make up the disease.

Hmm yeah I can see this being a bit dodgy, like unexpected psychological side effects. And as you say, who knows what this could do if it fell into the wrong hands...

Can anyone say Sirhan Sirhan????

Convenient huh?

Propanolol is a quite old drug, it's a Beta-blocker. It's primary use was in heart conditions (HBP) and also in anxiety treatment.

Still used on occassion for these purposes.

ABE:

Just read the actual article itself

Effect of post-retrieval propranolol on psychophysiologic responding during subsequent script-driven traumatic imagery in post-traumatic stress disorder

Alain Bruneta, Scott P. Orrb, c, Jacques Tremblaya, Kate Robertsona, Karim Naderd and Roger K. Pitmanc,,
aDepartment of Psychiatry, McGill University and Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, QC, Canada
bVA Medical Center, Manchester, NH, USA
cDepartment of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
dDepartment of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Received 28 March 2007; accepted 1 May 2007. Available online 22 June 2007.

Abstract

The β-adrenergic blocker propranolol given within hours of a psychologically traumatic event reduces physiologic responses during subsequent mental imagery of the event. Here we tested the effect of propranolol given after the retrieval of memories of past traumatic events. Subjects with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder described their traumatic event during a script preparation session and then received a one-day dose of propranolol (n = 9) or placebo (n = 10), randomized and double-blind. A week later, they engaged in script-driven mental imagery of their traumatic event while heart rate, skin conductance, and left corrugator electromyogram were measured. Physiologic responses were significantly smaller in the subjects who had received post-reactivation propranolol a week earlier. Propranolol given after reactivation of the memory of a past traumatic event reduces physiologic responding during subsequent mental imagery of the event in a similar manner to propranolol given shortly after the occurrence of a traumatic event.

Sounds like it is just reducing the emotional label associated with a memory. Essentially, when a memory is stored, the presence of 'fight or flight' chemicals help to consolidate the memory. One of these chemicals include adrenaline.

On recall, the emotional state is also recalled. Thus, we could say a memory attains an emotional label or marker. Obviously in PTSD, this emotional label leads to a distressing outcome (exteme physiological response of anxiety).

I guess forcing recall of trauma memory when under the influence of propanolol, which blocks adrenaline release, dampens the emotional label in future recollection. So, rather than deleting the memory, it seems to be 'deleting' the emotional label (and its resultant physiological response) associated with the memory.

[edit on 2-7-2007 by melatonin]

Yep. I posted about this last year but for some reason it didn't get much attention. Maybe this time eh?

More info here for those interested: McGill Scientists Aim to Rewire Traumatic Thoughts (Real Mind Control!)
.

Propranolol is not a new drug.

Scottish scientist James W. Black successfully developed propranolol in the late 1950s. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this discovery in 1988.

en.wikipedia.org...

From what I can tell from the available information, propranolol will not erase memories, but make them less intrusive and less disruptive.

If you've lived with traumatic memories, you know that they can have a devastating effect.

Eliminating them completely would not be advisable and nothing indicates that that is possible, but to be able to live a normal life, after having been subjected to horrors most will only see in movies, on televsion or read about in books, is not a bad thing.


[edit on 2007/7/2 by GradyPhilpott]

It might have some good uses. Like for problemed stalkers, violent rape, child abuse or kidnap victims. I wonder how it could be that they can target specific memories tho. Im sure there are people out there who might have different lives if they could get over specific events in their life. Especially if its had a negative impact on them. Still sounds a bit scary.

My grandpa raised a good question, kind of funny:

"Isn't it subjective which memories are bad?"

Yes it is subjective. It's based on the individual. Luckily, this drug is only given to the individual, and the only one whose concept of bad memories matters. I don't think it's a pick and choose type of thing. There are certain physiological responses to bad memories. Take the blue pill and bam, it's nothing but good times going forward.

Don't take the blue pill (I don't mean Viagra)

Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind is the first thing I thought of too! I'm not sure this sounds like a good idea but it is pretty interesting. But ultimately you cannot just block out a memory or its effects on you. I think your subconscious will find a way to bring it out in other ways.

I wonder if the lessons one learned because of this event are also deleted.

We wouldn't understand why we feel a certain way about things...Probably end up being more confusing than helpful.

As RealOrNot mentioned, this is like the Drew Barrymore movie...

Also kind of reminds me of "Men in Black"...the little memory zapper they used.

We're probably not that far from a neural eraser actually...Scary stuff.

So, the government basically screws over your whole family. Oh! Bad memory, let's erase it.

Does this make anyone think this is a slippery slope to mental slavery?

Yes, I've always expected this because people are just so forgetful. I think there are airborne pathogens or other agents that cause this. Forget a prescription, but this is part of a big eugenics plan to keep us primitive.

Reminds me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, all the zombie films too.