The stress and anxiety attached to traumatic memories can be hard to shake, but a dose of a sedative given when a memory is 'triggered' may help reprogram troubling thoughts, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain used propofol - the same surgical-grade sedative that Michael Jackson overdosed on, but at a low dose - to 'reconsolidate' traumatic memories in 50 volunteers.
They found that the drug disrupted participants' ability to remember the unpleasant film they'd been shown.
By sheer luck, propofol happens to target emotionally charged memories, but leave neutral ones intact, the new study reports.
Trauma is exceptionally difficult to 'treat,' so the Spanish scientists hope that the already-approved drug might have promise to safely diffuse disruptive memories.
Traumatic memories can be incredibly disruptive, and a new study demonstrates that the anesthetic propofol may specifically target emotional-charged memories, disrupting them but leaving 'emotionally neutral' memories intact
Some 70 percent of American adults have been through at least one traumatic event in their lifetimes - and an estimated 20 percent will develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
But even if the effects of trauma don't rise to the level of disabling, these memories can still be extremely disruptive to day-to-day life, and set the mental stage for stress and anxiety.
And memory is a powerful thing that we still don't fully understand.
Talk therapy has been the traditional treatment - and still is the predominant one - sometimes coupled with anti-anxiety drugs, but it isn't always sufficient, and many therapists and scientists are exploring alternative treatments.
Among these is the sedative, ketamine, but scientists believe propofol, too, might work to
