Would you take this pill?

Merika · 01-18-2006, 12:11 PM

Scientists at work on a pill to fade traumatic memories

Saturday, January 14, 2006; Posted: 10:05 p.m. EST (03:05 GMT)

That is science fiction. But real-world scientists are working on the next best thing. They have been testing a pill that, when given after a traumatic event like rape, may make the resulting memories less painful and intense.

Will it work? It is too soon to say. Still, it is not far-fetched to think that this drug someday might be passed out along with blankets and food at emergency shelters after disasters like the tsunami or Hurricane Katrina.

Psychiatrist Hilary Klein could have offered it to the man she treated at a St. Louis shelter over the Labor Day weekend. He had fled New Orleans and was so distraught over not knowing where his sisters were that others had to tell Klein his story.

"This man could not even give his name, he was in such distress. All he could do was cry," she said.

Such people often develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a problem first recognized in Vietnam War veterans. Only 14 percent to 24 percent of trauma victims experience long-term PTSD, but sufferers have flashbacks and physical symptoms that make them feel as if they are reliving the trauma years after it occurred.

Scientists think it happens because the brain goes haywire during and right after a strongly emotional event, pouring out stress hormones that help store these memories in a different way than normal ones are preserved.

Taking a drug to tamp down these chemicals might blunt memory formation and prevent PTSD, they theorize.

Some doctors have an even more ambitious goal: trying to cure PTSD. They are deliberately triggering very old bad memories and then giving the pill to deep-six them.

The first study to test this approach on 19 longtime PTSD sufferers has provided early encouraging results, Canadian and Harvard University researchers report.

"We figure we need to test about 10 more people until we've got solid evidence." said Alain Brunet, a psychologist at McGill University in Montreal who is leading the study.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/01/14....ap/index.html

twinkle · 01-18-2006, 01:18 PM

Didn't read all the article, but if I had lived a traumatic experience, of course I'd try the new pill.

Duke · 01-18-2006, 11:36 PM

I guess it depends on how traumatic an event it was.

I guess the thing that concerns me most is that we really seem to be turning into an overmedicated society. It isn't natural and I really wonder what the side effects are going to be another 100 years into the future (assuming the human race lasts that long).

Vautrin · 01-19-2006, 04:32 AM

Have to agree with Duke. Besides, there are tons of things that influence whether or not something traumatic will turn into PTSD. As for erasing memory, it is not even certain that that would suffice to prevent PTSD.

Merika · 01-19-2006, 09:13 AM

I think part of life is learning to accept and cope with all the events in your life which aren't what you had planned on and hoped you would never encounter. If you start masking over everything with pills...or anything else for that matter.... then there would be no reason for human emotion or the sense of the need to survive.

twinkle · 01-20-2006, 04:32 AM

I get your point, but we're talking "traumatic" here. It's about a horrible experience no one wishes to live. Not everyone's good at coping with that.

I know I'm repeating myself, but ever since I discovered my lttle miracle pill against my exceeding nervosity and my insomnia, I admit that had I searched help sooner, I'd have avoided many sleepless nights and constant tiredness.

So, my point is, if you have it the hard way, no one's gonna be there with you applauding.You're on your own. Alone. You're not getting no smarter either. You're simply struggling to get to live a normal life. So sorry if I seem to be encouraging the meds, but if there would be an easy way out, why the heck not?

Vautrin · 01-20-2006, 04:38 AM

Yes, why not? You can make arguments for both positions.

The thing is you never learn things from things you already are able to manage (or let others do). But only of those things you do yourself. If you take a pill for everything that bothers you (or let your kids take Ritalin, in order to calm them down, without any diagnosis), you are not improving yourself and those around you.

I could run up credit card debts to the account of say $1 million. And not be able to pay my debts back. And be forced to declare myself bankrupt. That is the easy way out. But if many people do that, the whole economy goes to smithereens (I love that word).

twinkle · 01-20-2006, 04:57 AM

You're talking about a flaw in your personality. Getting raped by your date isn't a pesonal flaw. Coping with it will not make you a better person, wil simply make you a survivor.

It's not the miracle pill we're talking about.

I think I may have ADD. I can work and work and re-work, I panick much more easily than everyone else and I can't seem to concentrate on a task that's longer and more tidious. Sorry, taking my little pill makes me less itchier, I'm calmer, I don't feel this overwhelemed by my work.

Of course I should pay more attention to this aspect of my life, but as long as my problem is not spending money I don't have, I'll worry about that "tommorow",

Luba · 01-20-2006, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merika

I think part of life is learning to accept and cope with all the events in your life which aren't what you had planned on and hoped you would never encounter. If you start masking over everything with pills...or anything else for that matter.... then there would be no reason for human emotion or the sense of the need to survive.

Beautifully said...I so agree!

Stone · 01-20-2006, 08:38 AM

i WOULDN'T take it but as a parent I would probably give it to my child to protect them if anything like Rape happened :?

Merika · 01-20-2006, 08:53 AM

Glad to see you were able to pop in Stone. I sure wish you could get your puter fixed!!! We miss you.

Stone · 01-20-2006, 08:57 AM

I miss you to, Hey pretty Sexy eyes there!!! LOL I like your new Avitar...

See I was in just enough to THREAD HIJACK!!!!! LMAO

Luba · 01-20-2006, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merika

Glad to see you were able to pop in Stone. I sure wish you could get your puter fixed!!! We miss you.

Ditto..

Meanon · 01-21-2006, 06:47 PM

I'd not take the pill. I think it's too risky. The guy is advocating and defending it's use when even he admits the trials are inconclusive, that indicates to me that he's out to make a quick buck rather than contibute to the clinical models about how PTSD occurs.

You can't wipe memory. even he isn't claiming that. The only thing that's proven to work in curing PTSD is evoking the memory (not immediately but sometime after the event) and reprocessing it to make it less traumatic. Having a partial block with other bits still causing trauma would be the worst of all worlds. PTSD with no cure. Like the effects of the date rape drug, trauma and memory supression. No thanks. Not until it's proved to work.