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Underground > Laboratory >

Would You Like to Delete Bad Memories?

Jot Evil Rules During Weddings

04:39 / 04.07.07

Researchers say that there might be a new drug that could delete bad or traumatic memories in people. The article in which I found this information is located here, for reference New Drug Deletes Bad Memories. This treatment has been tested on humans and it has been successful on rape victims. There is no word on whether when it might be released on the market.

I don't know, there are a lot of sides to this issue. I would like to hear the opinion of others on both the drug, and the idea of deleting memories

All Acting Regiment

12:06 / 04.07.07

The idea that it's better to click-delete a bad memory, instead of working over it until it can no longer help you but can be used by you to get stronger, seems utterly ridiculous to me. The ultimate quick fix.

12:32 / 04.07.07

If I'm reading that correctly, they're not so much talking about earasing bad memories as reducing any associated trauma. In the case of the rats, I'm not sure how it would be possible to establish that they'd forgotten the information in question, so much as ceased to react to it in the same way.

Anyway if this drug works as advertised, I don't see any harm on the face of it, although its widespread adoption could lead to problems further down the line, for example with the way abuse survivors are treated, as there could be an onus on the victim to 'just take the blue pill and get over it.'

Joy Division Oven Gloves

13:23 / 04.07.07

Well there are two different studies mentioned in the article using two different drugs. The study looking at recollections of accidents or rape claims a "dampening" of the emotional impact of recollection rather than a deletion of memory.

From the original Telegraph article

The researchers used propranolol, a drug normally used to treat hypertension in heart disease patients but also known to cause memory problems. They treated 19 accident or rape victims for 10 days with the drug or with dummy pills, while they asked to describe their memories of a traumatic event that happened 10 years earlier.

A week later, they found that the patients given the drug suffered fewer signs of stress such as raised heart rate when recalling their trauma.

I'm only working with the pharmachological knowledge of a first year student nurse here and may be missing something fundamental, but isn't this really rubbish science? Or perhaps more likely really sloppy journalism?

Propranolol is a beta-blocker - it inhibits the physiological effects of nor-adrenaline produced in response to stress, such as raised blood pressure and increased heart rate. As well as being prescribed for cardio-vascular conditions it's also currently given to control symptoms of anxiety. Taking it results in a generalised reduction in physiological stress responses. Trying to link this to specific memories seems disingenuous; the same group of people should also show less physiological signs of stress when recalling what they had for tea last night or how they felt after brushing their teeth.

15:35 / 12.07.07

Seems to me there's already a psychotherapeutic method for doing this, called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Of course, EMDR is a process... and we'd rather just take a pill.

20:13 / 12.07.07

As an afterthought - what about viewing this from the backwards perspective? If the claims regarding this therapy are true, are regular prescribed users of propanolol for hypertension, high blood pressure or anxiety unknowingly suppressing, de-significancising or deleting problematic or traumatic memories?

And is the fact that this may aid with anxiety or the tension that causes high blood pressure a curse or a cure?

Or does the administering of propanolol only function as a blocker of bad memories when the person is summoning them and channeling them immediately after the dosage is administered?

lille christina

07:11 / 06.08.07

Just a thought, but if you're deleting "bad memories" or the trauma associated with the memories, aren't your reducing the learning process as well?

I do not have any bad memories about murder or torture or anything like that but I learned from my bad memories, some of them still cause the feeling of unpleasantness when they come up, but I learned to avoid bad situations and to handle them (at least I think I do).

If some drug would reduce the trauma or the memory, wouldn't I be in danger of doing the same mistakes again?