Drug shown to 'overwrite' bad memories


A soldier watches a brigade prepare for a tour of duty in Iraq in this 2009 file photo at Fort Riley, Kansas. A number of Canadian and U.S. soldiers have returned from deployments in Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Canadian research suggests people with PTSD could benefit from the drug cortisol, which has potential to overwrite bad memories.
 

A soldier watches a brigade prepare for a tour of duty in Iraq in this 2009 file photo at Fort Riley, Kansas. A number of Canadian and U.S. soldiers have returned from deployments in Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Canadian research suggests people with PTSD could benefit from the drug cortisol, which has potential to overwrite bad memories.

Photograph by: Chris Hondros, Getty Images

What if you could dull the emotional pain of your worst memories?

New research from the University of Montreal suggests it's an option people might eventually have.

On Thursday, the school announced results of a study showing that the drug metyrapone could potentially "overwrite bad memories." This substance, the researchers say, reduces levels of cortisol, a stress hormone associated with memory recall.

It's theorized that by reducing a person's level of cortisol just before retrieving a memory, doctors can make the memory less painful for the person in the future.

Neurological science expert Marie-France Marin, lead author of the study, said such findings could prove beneficial for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"These people have very bad memories that prevent them from living a normal life," she said. "We think that therapy is a good way to help with PTSD; however, for some people, it seems to not work or not be optimal.

"If every time you retrieve (a bad memory) and it's not helping you because you cannot calm down a bit and put things back into perspective, it might be a good idea to retrieve it under the influence of metyrapone so you will recall less of the emotional or very traumatic part."

She added that such therapeutic practices could lead to less painful emotions during future recollections of the memory in question.

Marin acknowledged the controversy surrounding this line of research.

"Some researchers said we're erasing memories," she said. "I think it's an overstatement. If we use it in post-traumatic stress disorder, obviously soldiers who went to Afghanistan or Iraq will remember that they went there; we're not going to erase everything.

"I think it's really reducing, modifying (and) decreasing, more than erasing. The beauty of it is that it's specific to negative information."

The potential to clear unwanted memories was the centre of the 2004 Jim Carrey movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which a couple seek to erase all recollection of their time together.

The study involved 33 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 35. They were evenly split into groups that received two doses of metyrapone, one dose of metyrapone or a placebo three days after watching a story on a computer.

After receiving the drug or placebo, participants were asked for details about the story they watched just days earlier. Subjects on the double dose of metyrapone were less able to recall negative aspects of the story.

As well, four days later, when the effects of the drug would have worn off, those who had the highest quantity of metyrapone were still less able to recall negative aspects of the tale.

One hurdle to using metyrapone this way is that it is no longer commercially produced. Marin said it used to be common for treating Cushing's disease, a condition associated with excessive levels of cortisol. She said there were no problems with the drug itself that resulted in it going off the market, but other methods for treating Cushing's disease became more widely used.

Marin agreed that any future use of this drug — or other substances with similar effects — must be done carefully.

"We have to make sure that it's taken with caution and that we don't overuse it," she said. "It's important that you live with your emotions. If you have a very bad experience — someone dies in your family — you don't necessarily want to jump on the medication.

"But for people who really suffer and cannot get out of this traumatic nightmare, I think that it offers them hope for the future."

Colin MacLeod, a psychology professor with Ontario's University of Waterloo, agreed this kind of research and its applications should be approached with caution. However, he expressed general support for it in principle.

"I think it's a perfectly worthy line of research," he said. "It could yield important theoretical and applied advances. I think we shouldn't shut down that kind of an approach . . . as long as there's no obvious harm to the individuals and we can learn something from it."

dabma@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/derekabma

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Comment by Citizen X74 on May 28, 2011 at 12:33pm

been in the plans a very long time.

dressed up and disguised, so easy to hide

true nature of the beast left in lies

layer upon layer and hidden from sight

 

must not tell them, lest the truth come out

 

drug the masses feed them poison dull their minds

pretty soon, they won't mind

a nudge and a prod, its safe you see?

trust in us were like family.

 

slithering snakes

 

now, wheres my Soma? ahhhh there it is!!! well off on holiday!!!

 

Comment by Unemployed Storm trooper TK420 on May 28, 2011 at 3:52am
I agree with Tara's comment what she say is very true!
Comment by youhavetoforgiveme on May 27, 2011 at 7:20pm
The scary part is where Tara hit the nail on the head. If they can make drugs to erase bad memories, sooner or later they'll start making drugs to erase good ones tooooo.
Comment by Burbia on May 27, 2011 at 2:28pm
oh yeah, and i'll bet they will hand it out by tsa.  gawd, this and gbh, what a nightmare this world is coming to.  i can see it part of holy sacrament too.
Comment by Tara on May 27, 2011 at 1:42am

Just a beer or a toke of some whacky is not good enough to dull the bad memories but for a moment anymore? Now they'd like us take a little pill to kill our memories, good bad and indifferent? Isn't this killing who we are? Are we not made up of our life's experiences and our memories manifest out of these experiences? Without memories there would be a bigger void than the void of that one bad experience or experiences that we would wish to escape.

 

"Be careful for what you ask for because you just might get it." Lobotamized?????

 

Soma anyone???????

"Destroying the New World Order"

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