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New Drug Helps to Dampen Bad Memories

wile_e_wonka writes to tell us Researchers at Harvard and the Montreal-based McGill University are working on a drug that would allow psychiatrists to dampen painful memories in their patients when combined with therapy. "They treated 19 accident or rape victims for ten days, during which the patients were asked to describe their memories of the traumatic event that had happened 10 years earlier. Some patients were given the drug, which is also used to treat amnesia, while others were given a placebo. A week later, they found that patients given the drug showed fewer signs of stress when recalling their trauma."

10 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Would this be the formula? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 4, Funny

    Would this be the formula: CnH2n+1OH? At least it seems to be popular for dampening memories.

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    1. Re:Would this be the formula? by Joebert · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's also the generics' formula, Cr4+Ck

      --
      Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  2. Can it be used offensively? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    An old girlfriend who dumped me, I'd like to erase the memories she has of how painful it was to be with me, so she will give me another try.

  3. Oh yeah by SpiffyMarc · · Score: 3, Funny

    I saw this movie. While they are administering the procedure, Elijah Wood steals your underwear and Kirsten Dunst hits on an old guy.

    Count me out.

  4. Theory debunked by Nazlfrag · · Score: 1, Funny

    "They treated 19 accident or rape victims for ten days, during which the patients were asked to describe their memories of the traumatic event that had happened 10 years earlier."

    Well that's hardly scientific, perhaps it only helps the people involved in this mysterious decade old mass accident/rape.

  5. Take a pill, Jill by canUbeleiveIT · · Score: 1, Funny

    Funny, if you do this with alcohol or heroin, it's considered drug abuse and problem-avoidant behavior.

    Personally, I find this compulsion to "reduce stress" through pharmacological means to be slightly disconcerting. We seem to always talk about stress as if it were a bad thing when, in fact, it is one of the organism's primary protection mechanisms. Stress is the organisms way of prompting change. You know, the old towards pleasure/away from pain thing.

    In the example of the accident victims, maybe they need to learn to be more careful. In the case of the rape victims, maybe they need to learn to avoid people/situations in which they're vulnerable. Stress will help you with that. When I was in middle school, I got jumped by a bunch of kids from another school and beat up pretty badly. I was super-stressed about it for months, but--due to the stress--I also kept away from the area where these kids hung out, thus avoiding another beating.

  6. The drug has... by niceone · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...been in use round here for a while, it's called Dupesol(TM).

  7. Not true.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    remember goatse?
    yeah so do I. *shudder*

  8. Classification by Mathness · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would propranolol be classified as a recreational drug?

    --
    Carbon based humanoid in training.
  9. Two problems by mux2000 · · Score: 2, Funny

    One problem is that it doesn't dampen existing memories, but makes it harder to create new short-term memories - That's one problem. The other is that it doesn't dampen existing memories, but makes it harder to... where was I... hmm... I'm so thirsty... I wonder if there're any cookies left. brb.