Wow, I just read this today, and had heard about it before. It makes
me just a little weary, but I would be open to hearing about how it
really works for people.

Stephanie

--- In emsfirepoliceptsd@yahoogroups.com, iiovelife <no_reply@...>
wrote:
>
> New Drug Deletes Bad Memories
> Bill Christensen, Technovelgy.com
>
> LiveScience.com
> Mon Jul 2, 11:55 PM ET
>
>
>
> Do you have a really bad memory, or past heartache, that you would
> prefer to forget?
>
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
> Researchers at Harvard and McGill University (in Montreal) are
> working on an amnesia drug that blocks or deletes bad memories. The
> technique seems to allow psychiatrists to disrupt the biochemical
> pathways that allow a memory to be recalled.
>
>
> In a new study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research,
the
> drug propranolol is used along with therapy to "dampen" memories of
> trauma victims. 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.
>
>
> Similar research led by Professor Joseph LeDoux has been carried
out
> at New York University on rats; scientists were able to remove a
> specific memory from the brains of rats while leaving the rest of
the
> animals' memories intact. An amnesia drug called U0126 was
> administered.
>
>
> The rats were trained to associate two musical tones with a mild
> electrical shock so that when they heard either of the tones they
> would brace themselves for a shock. The researchers then gave half
> the rats the drug when playing one of the musical tones.
>
>
> After the treatment, the rats that had been given the drug no
longer
> associated that particular tone with an imminent shock but still
> braced themselves upon hearing the second tone, demonstrating only
> one memory had been deleted.
>
>
> Science fiction fans have a number of associations with the idea of
> banishing unwanted memories. In the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of
the
> Spotless Mind, Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey play lovers who have a
> falling out. Winslet's character goes to a company called Lacuna,
> Inc. to have her memories of the relationship removed; Carrey's
> character also has the procedure performed (see photo).
>
>
> In the film, the process involves showing the person a memento of
the
> relationship and then encouraging them to bring up specific
memories
> while an electric shock is given. Not to give away the film, but
this
> technique does not work as planned.
>
>
> Here's a memory you might have repressed. In the classic Star Trek
> episode Requiem for Methuselah, Jim Kirk becomes enamored of Rayna,
a
> beautiful woman who turns out to be an android created by a five
> thousand year old man who calls himself Flint, who was also
Leonardo
> DaVinci and Shakespeare (among many others) during the course of
his
> long life. Flint wants Rayna for himself, Kirk wants her, she loves
> them both, her circuits overload resulting in her death, and Kirk
is
> devastated.
>
>
> Finally, Spock saves the day by applying a little-known property of
> the Vulcan mind-meld, which is that he can make Kirk forget about
his
> sorrows and return to duty (see touching photo).
>
>
> Science fiction legend Philip K. Dick was one of the first to make
> use of this idea. In his 1966 short story We Can Remember It For
You
> Wholesale he writes about selectively erasing memories:
>
>
> Someone, probably at a government military-sciences lab, erased his
> conscious memories; all he know was that going to Mars meant
> something special to him, and so did being a secret agent...
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070703/sc_livescience/newdrugdel
> etesbadmemories
>