Slashdot Mirror
Trauma Pill Might Help Ease Emotional Pain
FrenchyinOntario writes "Canada's Globe & Mail is reporting that scientists are currently testing a 'trauma pill' that might help the victims of rape, the battlefield and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) forget or perhaps simply never store the memories of what happened to them the way they are stored normally immediately after the traumatic event, when the brain overloads itself with stress hormones. It's theorized that the pills could eventually be handed out to victims of Katrina-like disasters as well as returning war veterans. Critics wonder what kind of an effect it would have on a victim not to work through the pain like people have traditionally done."
I want my mind-enhancing "remember everything you read" pills for studying.
Exams in a couple of days dammit!
PTSD and people with extreme anxiety/phobias tend to respond very well to Virtual Reality therapies.
It's a relatively new field, but they basically introduce the person to whatever is causing their problems, while keeping them in a controlled environment.
The key is that the doctors can control the amount of sensory stimulation. If big fat hairy spiders sends the patient into the red, they can display a circle with 8 legs and then work up from there. The doctors also use 'crude' physical props to aid in the experience.
I remember reading an article about them doing this with war vets (the type who hit the floor when they hear a loud bang) and it was very effective in showing them that nobody was shooting at them and that there was nothing to fear. After a bunch of sessions, they went home changed men.
Wish I could find a link for you.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I guess the way I see it, this pill is kind of like emergency first aid. It helps prevent permanent damage after a traumatic event. The memories are still there - the person is just more able to function after the fact.
There's a medication that if given shortly after a stroke occurs can mitigat the permanent damage of the stroke. Should we withhold that medicine so people can experience the full effect of a stroke - and "grow as a person" as they try to overcome that damage? Or if I twist my ankle - should I not put ice on it, but rather experience the full possiblity of pain and suffering that can cause? The ice doesn't get rid of the consequences of whatever I did to twist my ankle - it still hurts - but icing it may reduce the swelling that can cause secondary damage that will take longer to heal. That's all we're talking about here.
I'm not the OP, but I have one opinion to add...
I'm a male survivor of rape when I was a child. There were many years that I wished there was some magic that would make it all go away, but standing where I'm standing now, I'm glad that pill did not exist. It's better to embrace your pain and be real about it, than to try to hide from it through drugs, dissociation, or anything else.
Now I'm not saying I would actively oppose the administration of this drug, I definetly would not. But this is how I personally feel about it. I would not judge anyone who chose the pill, though I would see it as a choice between the red and blue pills.
This is the sort of thing that suggetss forgetting is good:
r auma_Pluses_and_minuses.htm
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Reliving_t
Traditional psychiatry, with its emphasis on remembering every humiliating or traumatizing moment of your life could easily make you miserable.
If you look at treatments for PTSD, you'll see that psychotherapy hasn't been proven to be helpful.
Look at the standard human reaction after a war: don't talk about it. Pretend it didn't happen. Try to get on with life. Otherwise you'll just be a mess, and not get anything done.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
At My Lai between 350 and 510 civilians were killed, so the Hue/Tet killings were much bloodier and more orchestrated, so why is My Lai always brought up when the Communists killed more?
Because US soldiers didn't kill them and we're not in Vietnam discussing the Vietnamese government? Amazing isn't it, when discussing the potential consequences of something regarding the US military we look at past actions by the US military and not some other group... simply amazing.
I don't think that a drug like this will be used to facilitate war crimes because a Military needs discipline and rape/murder goes against discipline.
Why? Soldiers kill all the time, they are ordered to and do so.
An Army is a mob and shows some mob behaviors which are tempered in a military unit by training, routine and dispiline, the US military, NATO, Russian, Israeli and those militaries which closely follow these doctrines will not allow a drug which breaks down the discipline to be dispensed.
This will reinforce discipline, your logic is actually proving how useful this would be. Your well trained army can be ordered to kill civilians, assuming it is trained well enough. However, some may feel remorse and this will cause long term problems (for the army as a whole and for the individual soldiers). Now with a magic pill, this problem is solved. They can order as many killings as they want without any of those nasty consequences. Of course, as soon as such usage becomes public knowledge recruitment numbers would probably plummet but that wasn't what you were arguing.
Reminiscent of the quite excellent movie Jacob's Ladder.
But I think Lt Calley and his troops were likely suffering from PTSD already. Perhaps such a treatment would make atrocities less likely. In TFA, the army was unenthused by the idea, saying it would "curb survival instincts" (make them less aggressive, I think that means).
Years after, of course, these detailed memories are gone (only a "summary" remains...), but for the days just after it was pretty impressive.
You don't have to have the memories intact for an event to leave a lasting impression upon you.
Oh, yes, since then I drive more carefully, especially on snowy/icy conditions...