It may sound like science fiction, but researchers are exploring ways to change people’s memories, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447104575118021991832154.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
Right now a common hypertension drug is being tested on rape victims, soldiers who have been in combat and those who have survived car accidents. The goal is to replace the horrific memories these people have with less frightening ones.
The concept of the research is to essentially strip away the fear that accompanies the bad memories, Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor Roger Pittman told The Journal.
At one time, scientists believed that memories were like photos, set in stone and unchangeable. But now the theory is that memories, each time they are recalled, can be changed.
There are various techniques being explored or actually used to change memories, according to The Journal, which explains several of them. For example, in exposure therapy, used to address phobias, a person is repeatedly exposed to the thing or situation that frightens them.
In another study that Pittman was involved in, a man was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after being hit in the head with a gun during a bank robbery. The man was so disturbed from his trauma at the bank that he stopped bird-watching, which had been one of his hobbies. He became so anxious that he was becoming home-bound.
That man, during six treatments, would asked to go back to his memory of the bank incident after being given propranolol. That hypertension drug calms a fast heartbeat and reduces sweating. So by the last session the man was feeling a distance from his trauma at the bank, and was able to take up his normal activities, according to The Journal, which describes some of the other research in detail.
This research is important and could add something significant to our treatment of PTSD. But when we try things like this with the brain, we too often find that a little bit of change in one area, causes radical changes somewhere else. The brain is a sensitive eco-system that must be very carefully modified or you get unintended results.