Pill could erase painful memories, study shows

[LetTimmySmoke]

Source: MSNBC

What if you could take a pill and erase painful memories? Most of us would probably choose not to lose parts of our past, but for those with post-traumatic stress disorder, such a pill might bring welcome relief.

In a study that sounds very much like a scene from the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” researchers have shown that the right medication might actually help rub out wrenching remembrances.

For the new study, researchers rounded up 33 university students and asked them to watch a video presentation that told the story of a little girl who has a horrible accident while visiting with her grandparents. While the girl and her grandfather are constructing a birdhouse, one of the little girl’s hands gets caught in a saw. One of the pictures shown to the study volunteers is of her mangled hand.

Though the girl’s hand is eventually saved at the hospital and the story ends fine, the presentation is tough to sit through and tends to cause viewers emotional distress, explains the study’s lead author Marie-France Marin, a doctoral student at The Center for Studies on Human Stress at the University of Montreal. “It’s not fun to watch,” she says. “It induces a lot of emotion.”

Read more: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/31/6757302-pill-could-erase-painful-memories-study-shows

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And those without the thousands of dollars to pay big pharma can go the traditional route for getting over bad memories - shrooms and pot ;)

[LetTimmySmoke]

1. Although no matter how high I get, I still can't forget the Bush Administration

[liberal N proud]

2. All we need it the memory stick from Men in Black

[Sonoman]

3. I'll buy a bucket of 'em.

Meanwhile it's me and Elmer T Lee and some wonderful shit I keep in Mason Jars under the kitchen counter.

Sonoman

[Auntie Bush]

8. I'm so sorry you've had such a hard life sonoman.

:hug:

[Sonoman]

9. Actually, Auntie Bush,

life has been pretty kind for the most part.

But when it hits the fan, it hits hard.

And it usually catches me by surprise.

Sonoman

[Sonoman]

10. Actually, Auntie Bush,

life has been pretty kind for the most part.

But when it hits the fan, it hits hard.

And it usually catches me by surprise.

Sonoman

[Ian David]

4. If you can't afford the pill, then play Tetris.

Tetris Inoculation Against PTSD Flashbacks

Imagine an inoculation that a soldier could take within an hour or two of witnessing a particularly traumatic wartime event. If there was a drug to prevent flashbacks from occurring later on, most soldiers would probably take it. Call it an Anti-PTSD drug.

But what if that drug wasn’t a drug at all, but a simple computer game you could equip every military unit with on the front lines?

Yes, researchers who did an analogue study on 40 undergraduates suggest that the old computer game Tetris can actually help prevent future post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) flashbacks. Here’s their theory:

Our theory is based on two key findings:

1) Cognitive science suggests that the brain has selective resources with limited capacity;

2) The neurobiology of memory suggests a 6-hr window to disrupt memory consolidation.

The rationale for a ‘cognitive vaccine’ approach is as follows: Trauma flashbacks are sensory-perceptual, visuo-spatial mental images. Visuo-spatial cognitive tasks selectively compete for resources required to generate mental images. Thus, a visuo-spatial computer game (e.g. “Tetris”) will interfere with flashbacks.

More:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/01/08/tetris-inoculation-against-ptsd-flashbacks/

[digonswine]

5. I don't want my pain taken away. I NEED my pain!

[BadgerKid]

6. No doubt there are military applications. n/t

[El Supremo]

7. I thought that was what electro shock therapy was for. n/m