Beta-Blocking Bad Memories

Beta-blockers are currently used in medicine for management of cardiac arrhythmias, hypertension, and even heart attacks. According to a recent study, these little drugs could possibly add another application to that list—treatment of anxiety disorders. Clinical psychologist Merel Kindt from the University of Amsterdam suggests that beta-blockers have the ability to erase emotion of fearful memories. It is important to note that the actually memory has shown to linger, but the associated fear from that memory seems to be reduced if not wholly forgotten after taking the drugs. This outlandish claim seems to work by altering the way by which upsetting memories are stored in the brain. Experiments supporting this theory use pictures of spiders attended by an electric shock, supposedly eliciting a fearful memory of the image with that associated shock. A fraction of these patients were then given beta-blockers (in this specific experiment propranolol was used) while the other subjects were given a placebo. The next day, all patients were once again shown the picture of the spider. Amazingly, the patients that had been administered the beta-blocker had a “fear response” that was nearly eliminated in contrast to those who were given the placebo.

The promise of these results could lie in the treatment of anxiety disorders. I find this concept extremely interesting as this treatment could make peoples traumatic experiences more manageable, such as loss of a loved one, without completely erasing the memories associated with that pain. As with any new finding, more tests on how this drugs influences memory should first be conducted before it hits the streets as a way to alleviate anxiety disorders, but as beta-blockers are already used for other treatments, their impact on this field may not be far off.

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

By Blake Cannon