Beta Blockers Block Bad Memories?
Many migraineurs are prescribed beta-blockers taken daily in order to prevent migraines. This is an off-label use, but many migraineurs have benefited. Now, a Dutch study has come out suggesting that beta-blockers may have another potential off-label use — blocking bad memories in the brain.
Study Specs
The study was on 60 people with a laboratory-induced phobia. 30 of them were given propranolol (stuff I was on for a month, but my body hated it) and the other a placebo. They tested how startled a person was by flashing a picture up of the thing they had been conditioned to hate.
Conditioned to hate? These 60 were given “mild electric shocks” whenever pictures of spiders were flashed before them, in the hopes of creating bad memories with spiders (or pictures of spiders). I thought getting mild electric shocks would condition you to hate medical researchers and not spiders, but that’s why I don’t volunteer for these things.
Anyway, the propranolol group were far less started by pictures of spiders than the placebo group. The theory is that the beta blocker has somehow blocked the way the brain processes attaching emotionas to memories, particularly bad ones. The participants claimed that they still could remember being shocked when shown pictures of spiders, it just didn’t seem all that frightening to them.
Also, the researchers say that more work needs to be done before anyone with a severe phobia or post traumatic stress could be helped by this.
More Harm Than Good?
Although I’m not a doctor, I think I can safely claim that it’s never a good idea to take medications you really don’t need to take. There’s also concerns over whether taking a pill to block out bad memories may also block out good memories. There is also a concern that this may predispose someone to Alzheimer’s.
If you are concerned about long term side effects with beta blockers for your migraine prevention, then talk to your doctor. Don’t just stop them, because then you will get a migraine, and that will definately leave a bad memory.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:42 am
[...] shows that the use of beta blockers could help people forget bad memories. The study notes that this is still all theory and that more research needs to be [...]