Rose White
VIP Member
So I was listening to this podcast
It was about memory and they interviewed this guy named Joseph LeDoux. He studied memory in rats and discovered a way to erase bad memories.
www.apa.org
In a nutshell… there’s a classic behaviorist experiment where rats or other animals are conditioned to fear a tone by shocking them when they hear it. This is called negative reinforcement. When the tone is played the rats will freeze for the rest of their lives after being conditioned that way.
A drug was discovered that inhibited memory formation. If the drug was given right when the memory was formed the rats wouldn’t remember to be afraid when they heard the tone. But then LeDoux discovered that if the drug was given when the rats were already conditioned and frozen in fear from the sound of the tone it would also cause the memory to fade. This is because memories are stored in proteins. Every time you have a memory you are reconstructing it with proteins and emotions are tagged onto it, also with proteins. The drug breaks apart the emotional connection.
The drug is called anisomycin. It’s an antibiotic. And unfortunately it is apparently toxic to humans. But there is another drug called Propanolol. It’s a blood pressure medicine for hypertension and it has shown some of the same effects in humans as the anisomycin. Propanolol works by inhibiting norepinephrine which enhances memory consolidation.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The effects aren’t as noticeable as the anisomyvin in rats but there is some evidence that it can be used to reduce the emotional toll of memories. It is already used for anxiety and stage fright in musicians, actors, and public speakers, but off-label. It’s so effective for steadying nerves that it is tested for in high level sports competitions that require a high degree of accuracy such as target shooting, pool, golf, etc.
I think the way it would work is, you would do the exposure therapy then take the propanolol. Apparently there is a six hour window after a memory is brought up for it to be consolidated. The idea is to break up the consolidation process.
Kind of weird, but really EMDR and therapy in general are doing the same thing. Every time you remember something you are altering the memory, and especially you are altering the emotions attached to that memory. Self-medicating with alcohol and drugs or other addictions is a very disorganized way of trying to achieve the same thing, but probably more dangerous. Propanolol supposedly has a lower risk of abuse and addiction than benzodiazepines.
Freeing bad memories
Memories get reconsolidated for about six hours after being tapped, according to research by Joseph LeDoux. Can clinicians take advantage of this critical period?
www.apa.org
A drug was discovered that inhibited memory formation. If the drug was given right when the memory was formed the rats wouldn’t remember to be afraid when they heard the tone. But then LeDoux discovered that if the drug was given when the rats were already conditioned and frozen in fear from the sound of the tone it would also cause the memory to fade. This is because memories are stored in proteins. Every time you have a memory you are reconstructing it with proteins and emotions are tagged onto it, also with proteins. The drug breaks apart the emotional connection.
The drug is called anisomycin. It’s an antibiotic. And unfortunately it is apparently toxic to humans. But there is another drug called Propanolol. It’s a blood pressure medicine for hypertension and it has shown some of the same effects in humans as the anisomycin. Propanolol works by inhibiting norepinephrine which enhances memory consolidation.
Propranolol’s effects on the consolidation and reconsolidation of long-term emotional memory in healthy participants: a meta-analysis
Considering the pivotal role of negative emotional experiences in the development and persistence of mental disorders, interfering with the consolidation/reconsolidation of such experiences would open the door to a novel treatment approach in psychiatry. ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
I think the way it would work is, you would do the exposure therapy then take the propanolol. Apparently there is a six hour window after a memory is brought up for it to be consolidated. The idea is to break up the consolidation process.
Kind of weird, but really EMDR and therapy in general are doing the same thing. Every time you remember something you are altering the memory, and especially you are altering the emotions attached to that memory. Self-medicating with alcohol and drugs or other addictions is a very disorganized way of trying to achieve the same thing, but probably more dangerous. Propanolol supposedly has a lower risk of abuse and addiction than benzodiazepines.
