SUNDAY, Feb. 15 (HealthDay News)—Imagine being able to decouple bad memories from the fear and anxiety they produce with just a pill.

That's the promise of a new report from Dutch researchers published in the Feb. 15 online issue of Nature Neuroscience. Merel Kindt and colleagues at the University of Amsterdam used a beta blocker called propranolol (also known as Inderal) to erase, at least in the short term, the fear response induced by a painful memory in humans that was induced in the laboratory.

Such findings could one day help individuals suffering from pathological anxiety disorders from the debilitating physiological effects of their fears. Yet many questions remain, experts note, such as how permanent the effect is, and whether it can affect traumatic memories that may be decades old.

"I think it's a very interesting and exciting study," said Jane Taylor, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University, who studies memory reconsolidation in rats. "It will be interesting to know how long lasting this effect is, and whether it only works on recently consolidated memories."

Mark Bouton, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Vermont, echoed that sentiment. "This study is a solid step forward in our understanding of how to reduce fear," he said. "The big question is whether this treatment will reduce all forms of relapse, including the return of fear that can occur with the passage of time."

Human memory often is compared to computer storage. Some memories exist in a sort of neurological flash RAM, whereas others are stored for the long term, on the brain's hard disk. The analogy works to a point, but it isn't perfect, as it turns out to be quite difficult to permanently erase files in the brain's memory banks.

"Fear memories can be surprisingly resilient," Bouton explained.

To try to break at least the physiological hold these fears have over individuals, Kindt induced a kind of Pavlovian fear response in 60 undergraduate students at the University of Amsterdam.

The study lasted three days. On the first day, the subjects learned to associate images of spiders with a mild electrical shock. Fear was measured by assessing each individual's startle response—how much their eyes blinked in response to the stimulus. That fear memory was then consolidated—or written to the hard disk, if you will.

The next day, the memory was recalled, but only after the subjects had been given either a placebo or propranolol. The idea, Bouton explained, is that at this point, the memory becomes "open to modification"—just as a computer file can be changed and then rewritten to the hard disk.

Propranolol had already been shown to impact memory reconsolidation in rodents; the question was, would it have the same effect in people? The answer came on day three, when the subjects were tested again. The physiological response to the fear-inducing cue—pictures of spiders—was eliminated in the propranolol group, but not in the placebo group, Kindt found.

"In principle," said Bouton, "this is a step toward finding a clinical treatment for people with pathological fears."

Indeed, the authors noted that their findings "are consistent with those of a recent preliminary study of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder in which post-retrieval propranolol seemed to reduce subsequent physiological responding to traumatic memory."

Yet much remains unknown. For instance, the current research involved only a very short period of time. Though the memory appeared erased on day three, would that still be true a month later? And, it's unclear how effective will propranolol be against longer-term memories, such as traumatic childhood memories that persist into adulthood.

Besides, the experimental memories were not exactly erased in this study, Taylor noted: The propranolol-treated subjects no longer flinched in reaction to the stimulus, yet they knew that they should. That, Taylor suggested, could limit propranolol's clinical utility.

"Being afraid of something doesn't just involve a physiological response," Taylor said, "it's how you think about it and how it affects your behavior."

health.msn.com

Sounds interesting.

Interesting..... but that may cause us to be less cautious of our actions lol

Sounds long.

Title does sound interesting.

can somebody summarize this

Watch "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

If that taught us anything its that memory erasing will only make us fall in love with Kate Winslet then want our memories back again!! I WARNED YOU!

ooo gimme some pills

Basically, it's supposed to relieve the discomfort associated with bad memories. Their hope is that people who suffer from traumatic experiences due to past incidents, will be able to think about the incident without freaking out. It does not however, erase the memories altogether.

I believe this pill has bad side effects.

Well, you're definitely right. It might freak people in a different way or make them get high.

Whatever, lol. Stupid scientists. As if there could be a pill that erases your memories...and who would want to do such a thing...it's having memories that makes you who you are (good ones or bad!)

saw this on oprah


idk about this though, it could be good for people who are traumatized, but you'd never learn from your mistakes

people cant take that pill.
i wont either!

I thought of that movie when I read the title!

They are bad memories because of the negative emotions that occurred at the same time, so I can see how this would "erase bad memories." However, I would not want to get rid of those emotions through a pill, otherwise you would not change anything or even know why they were so influential in the first place. Those emotions were there for a reason at that time.

For severe/traumatizing cases, it makes more sense.

The world is becoming so much boring now.

i just might need a pill like this one

Interesting Development, it has its ups and downs. I'm 50-50 on this.

no thanks

I want to keep all my memories, no matter how good or bad they are. You can't appreciate the good without the bad.