Scientists Developing Drugs That Could Eliminate Traumatic Events From Our Memories

[Dover]

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

March 20, 2007 — "I'd take it in a second," said Sgt. Michael Walcott, an Iraq War veteran, referring to an experimental drug with the potential to target and erase traumatic memories.


Walcott, who served in a Balad-based transportation unit that regularly took mortar fire, now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Since returning to the United States two years ago, he has been on antidepressants and in group therapy as he tries to put his life back together and heal from the psychological scars of war. "There are moments," he said, "when you just want be alone and don't want to deal with everyone telling you that you've changed."

There are many others like Walcott. The Army estimates that one in eight soldiers returning home from Iraq suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms of the disorder, once known as shell shock, include flashbacks, nightmares, feelings of detachment, irritability, trouble concentrating and sleeplessness...>

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2964509&page=1

[EVDebs]

1. The past six yrs of the Bush regime are a blur anyway ! nt

[asthmaticeog]

2. But why? You can just clutch some tin cans and get rid of all your engrams.

[lvx35]

4. God that picture on the left is scary.

The scene in the Shining was scary without Bush, but with him...

[Kutjara]

3. It'll be a great justification for torture.

"Hey, we gave the suspect a pill after we tortured him to confess. He doesn't remember a thing. What's the problem?"

[soothsayer]

8. yup. bingo!

[crikkett]

12. ....date rape....

:scared:

[Dover]

5. Wouldn't it be simpler to clone the sociopaths currently running this country for the dirty deeds

that real humans with memories, feelings, conscience, morality and kinship with humanity and the earth couldn't possibly pull off without serious consequences to their psychological and spiritual bodies?
Erasing memory is one big step toward dehumanization; No memory, no conscience or moral fiber or blood in one's veins.

[azurnoir]

6. That's just freaking creepy

Wouldn't the people have memory gaps then? What would be done about that?

[Dover]

9. The complexity of the brain....

Yeah, besides all the other great reasons why this is insane, the brain is extremely complex and we don't know what effect and function all the various parts have. A case in point is this study:


Amnesia Destroys Imagination as Well as Memory, Study Finds
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

January 17, 2007
Amnesia may rob people of their imaginations as well as their memories, new research suggests.

"What we've shown is that people with amnesia really are stuck in the present," said lead study author Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London.

"They can't recall the past, and now it seems that they can't even imagine the future or indeed richly imagine even fictitious experiences."

Amnesia, which is sometimes temporary, describes several conditions that involve partial or complete memory loss.

Brain damage, tumors, strokes, or even psychological issues that cause the brain to black out disturbing memories can cause the effect. (Related: "Beyond the Brain" in National Geographic magazine.)..cont'd

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070117-amnesia.html

[tiptoe]

7. Sounds like...Nazi Germany.

[Monkeyman]

10. Bingo

[tiptoe]

11. Gee, do you think a *Co FDA would EVER approve such a "miracle drug" without thorough trials?

:sarcasm:

[crikkett]

13. they'll test it on the troops

all those shots....