Erasing Details Of Bad Memories 135
An anonymous reader writes "People can be trained to forget specific details associated with bad memories, according to breakthrough findings that may lead the way for the development of new depression and post-traumatic stress disorder therapies. New study (abstract), published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, reveals that individuals can be taught to forget personal feelings associated with an emotional memory without erasing the memory of the actual event."
Midazolam (Score:4, Informative)
The drug Midazolam [wikipedia.org] (trade name Versed) is already used to induce anterograde amnesia before certain unpleasant medical procedures. This is used where the effects of an anesthetic are undesirable or impossible.
Sometimes this causes problems - it is often abused by the health care industry to sometimes horrific results. In the worst cases, people are put through what can only be called torture under the assumption that the drug will block their memories of the event, and even though their conscious memories of it are gone later, they suffer PTSD type symptoms after the fact. The tales of people who've had bad experiences in that regard are bone chilling. This isn't universal of course, and used judiciously the drug has beneficial uses. But it is not always used wisely.
Also, there is some evidence it can cause permanent or semi-permanent memory impairment in the elderly, as it interferes with the mechanisms of memory formation.
Alcohol (Score:4, Informative)
Meanwhile, this is really nothing new: Alcoholics figured it out thousands of years ago. Mastadon trample your kids? The chieftan fucking your wo-man? The bastards in Sales pissing you off? Great, have a fucking drink.
Re:Midazolam (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)