Dear Students:
Imagine that you are a war veteran who is haunted by memories of death and destruction, or that you were abused by a parent as a child and are suffering from the effects of those memories. Then consider being offered a drug that would literally erase the memory of the events that are causing you such pain. Click the link below to download a recent report from ABC News on efforts by scientists to do just that - to chemically alter memory consolidation in humans, making them forget specific events forever.
Trials of drugs such as propranolol are showing promising results in literally erasing memories. Subjects are given the treatment either immediately after the event, or after triggering memories of a past event during therapy. Results indicate that these drugs can significantly alter the process of "memory consolidation," causing the person to forget the event and/or its emotional content.
The larger questions, of course, are those of medical ethics. As the story points out, issues of abuse, who gets to decide what a "traumatic" memory is and who gets the treatment, etc., have yet to be hashed out.