Memories over...Mind?

According to a recent study conducted on 60 people, Dutch investigators believe that beta-blocker drugs could help people who suffer from emotional after-effects of traumatic experiences. These drugs are commonly used as heart medicine, but could potentially be used to alter how memories are recalled. The tests conducted were done so by artificially creating a fearful memory by associating pictures of spiders with a mild electric shock delivered to the patients. After being split into two groups, one given the beta blocker propranolol and the other a placebo, according to a “startle response” test, results showed that those given the beta blocker showed less fear of the images of the spiders. So, memories are still intact, yet the emotional intensity of the memories is dampened.

However, alongside the potential memory-banishing use of this drug, there is the ethical issue of tampering with the mind. Each individual’s personal experiences, and subsequent memories of these experiences, play a major role in shaping that person’s personality and decision-making skills. For instance, I am sure that many adults can attest to the fact that they have at least one childhood or adolescent memory of a bad decision that they made, and have used this particular memory as a learning tool for future decisions. So, as Dr. Daniel Sokol, lecturer at Medical Ethics at St. George’s University of London points out, “Memories are important, for people to learn from their mistakes.”

Though the doctors cited in the article point out that their goal is to use this drug for complex conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder, tampering with memories could potentially have a disastrous effect on the mind as a whole. The results of the trials suggest that the use of this drug eliminates or dampens the effect on the brain of traumatic memories. Yet, there is still the possibility and the danger that this procedure can also eliminate good memories in the mind. In this case, which Medical ethics expert Dr. Daniel Sokol argues, there is the risk of a type of “accelerated Alzheimer’s” effect. So, using this drug to attempt to eliminate bad memories may be successful, but may also have the same affect on good memories, and ultimately completely alter the mind of an individual.

Though at first glance this procedure seems to be the next possible solution for curing the traumatic memories that lead to depression, anxiety, and even suicide, we have to be very cautious when dealing with altering the most unique and valuable part of a human being; the mind.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7892272.stm