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Interesting psychiatric breakthrough?


Miller
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I was reading this in The Week today, the actual article I believe is in a publication called "Nature". If there are any typing errors my bad:

 

 

"Imagine being able to rewind a person's memory like a movie and erase a single, traumatic incident. A new study indicates that it may someday be possible, says Nature. Scientists at New York University have discovered a way to erase single memories from the brains of rats, leaving the rest of the memory network intact. In the study, two groups of rats were trained to fear musical notes by associating them with the delivery of painful electric shocks. The trained rats cowered when they heard the tones, expecting an electric shock. Then the researches gave one of the groups an amnesia-producing drug called U0126. The next day, they played the musical tones for both groups of rats. While the untreated rats cowered in fear, the rats that had been given U0126 didn't react at all. They had forgotten the experience of being shocked. The ability to erase a single memory could be a way to cure people of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses connected to disturbing experiences, says neurophysiologist Greg Quir. 'This is the future of psychiatry.'"

 

Pretty interesting, right? My mom went through a lot when she was young, all of her years to follow were affected because of her childhood/teenage years. Compounding that over the years with everything life can throw at you caused her health to take a bad turn and continuously deteriorate; that is a large portion as to why I'm pursuing Psychiatrics. I'm a firm believer that a persons mental state has adverse effect upon their physical state of being.

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My brother even has post-traumatic stress disorder from when a couple of assholes broke into our house and threatened him, if that drug does what it is supposed to do things are going to be really interesting in the next few years to come.
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Well I dont have any seriously disturbing memories that would effect me to the extent of some people. So I probably wouldn't know what its really like, but it would be really hard for me to consider taking something thats going to alter my memories. This kinda makes me think that they are just dipping a toe into a huge dangerous pool. Me thinks it could be kinda dangerous. LOL just thought of the movie men in black. "K have you ever flashy thingie me?"

 

 

another question... What happens if you have the memory erased and then people you know ask you about something that has to do with the memory?

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I think the idea is to remove the type of memory that people don't ask you about. The drug is supposed to remove the one, pinpointed memory, leaving the rest of your memory structurally sound.

 

I would compare it to maybe a black out moment after a night of drinkinghttp://www.buckeyestangs.com/vb/images/smilies/imported/drink.gif, things are still intact, it's just not all there.

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"Imagine being able to rewind a person's memory like a movie and erase a single incident."

Women have been doing that for centuries.

 

Please tell me they have more to go on then just rat tests....? What you posted shows that it erased the memory of that event, but how do they know it was limited to that? Supposed it erases all of your painful memories? Those memoories, as well as the good one, are what make us who we are, only in the most extreme cases should they be tampered with. Even then, you really really don't want to trust an experimental drug. Their claim is seriously way off base considering what little data they have, and it's wrong to publish such a claim.

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"Imagine being able to rewind a person's memory like a movie and erase a single incident."

Women have been doing that for centuries.

 

Please tell me they have more to go on then just rat tests....? What you posted shows that it erased the memory of that event, but how do they know it was limited to that? Supposed it erases all of your painful memories? Those memoories, as well as the good one, are what make us who we are, only in the most extreme cases should they be tampered with. Even then, you really really don't want to trust an experimental drug. Their claim is seriously way off base considering what little data they have, and it's wrong to publish such a claim.

I was thinking the exact same thing. How can they assume that they didn't erase the other memories the rats had besides the traumatic ones? You don't know who the hell a rat is or is not thinking besides that shock reaction. I'm just saying, if they can hone it, this might be an acceptional discovery.

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I find this very hard to believe. I could MAYBE believe it if the drug could target one "type" of memory, but one specific memory? No way. I think people who suffer from PTSD possibly had issues prior to the "event" that potentially caused or accelerated the onset of the disorder. PTSD is a state in which you "can't stop remembering." To be diagnosed with PTSD, you must have been in a situation in which you were afraid for your safety or your life, or you must have experienced something that made you feel fear, helplessness, or horror. PTSD changes the biology of the brain. MRI and PET scans show changes in the way memories are stored in the brain. PTSD is an environmental shock that changes your brain, and scientists do not know if it is reversible.

 

My Dad, 30+ years after serving 2 tours in Vietnam was just diagnosed with PTSD. Does he or did he let it control his life to the point where he could not function in Society? Hell no, he didn't even know he had a problem until he saw psychologist to get approved for VA Disability, related to other physical health issues potentially caused from his tour of service.

 

So, if something happens to you more than once or if something occurs to you over a very long period of time, the likelihood of developing PTSD is increased. This applies to the rats that were tested, them being shocked and associating the pain with the music. To bad we can't ask them what else they can't remember, like their name. Oh, that's right they're rats.

 

Cliff notes...

 

I've determined that my wife, or women in general could cause the on set of PTSD. BEWARE!~

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No matter if the drug works or not, it will be in testing for the next decade maybe longer before it gets approved for the FDA. Im not saying I dont think its possible SOME DAY and im sure they've done more testing that just what was posted, but its still a long way off.
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I think people who suffer from PTSD possibly had issues prior to the "event" that potentially caused or accelerated the onset of the disorder.

 

You're either endorsing a diathesis-stress model of psychopathology or coming perilously close to "blaming the victim."

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You're either endorsing a diathesis-stress model of psychopathology or coming perilously close to "blaming the victim."

 

I'm by no means blaming the victim. This is just my opinion that does so happen to support diathesis-stress model of psychopathology.

 

Do you not agree that people with pre-existing anxieties, or psychological problems, or who have an external locus of control, are more likely to develop PTSD? In contrast, people who are high in hardiness, self-efficacy, sense of coherence, and have an internal locus of control are generally less likely to develop PTSD.

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