Beta-Blockers Erase Emotion of Fearful Memories

Have you ever had a memory that keeps coming back to haunt you? A recent study by clinical psychologist Merel Kindt shows that beta-blockers have the potential to take away emotions associated with scary memories. After taking the drugs, a person who recalls a traumatic event would have dulled emotions associated with that memory.

Published in Nature Neuroscience, Kindt’s research follows a clinical study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research that suggested beta-blockers helped patients who suffered from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Subjects were shown a photograph of a spider accompanied by an electric shock, conditioning them to associate fear with that memory. Some subjects were given the beta-blocking drug propanolol and others were given a placebo. Twenty four hours later, the subjects were shown the same photograph of the spider. The fear associated with the image was erased for those who had taken propanolol.

The scientists believe that the beta-blockers affect how the frightening memories are stored. When you recall a memory, it changes a little, and the new version is recorded in long-term memory by chemical fluctuations (called reconsolidation). The beta-blockers are thought to interfere with these chemical fluctuations, blocking reconsolidation of the emotional components of your memories. The rest of the memory is still there, so people remember going through trauma, but the emotional intensity is dulled.

The negative side to this finding is that beta-blockers would affect reconsolidation of all memories, whether happy or sad. However, patients with anxiety disorders based on fear would most likely choose to lose some of the happier moments in order to avoid reliving the fearful ones. Thus, beta-blockers are a widespread treatment for anxiety orders but the long-term effects on memory still must be assessed. Since they are already widely prescribed for other conditions such as various heart problems, researchers believe overall the drugs are benign and useful for these anxiety patients.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40928/title/Beta-blockers_erase_emotion_of_fearful_memories