And new ways to treat anxiety disorders associated with frightening memories
Memories are formed in stages. In the beginning, emotional memories are unstable, as they do not constitute more than a pattern of electrical signals in the brain
Fell dramatically to passenger aircraft the U.S. during its flight over the waters of the Hudson River in January 2009, and save all the passengers of the 155 people, were not a test of the experience of flight excellent pilot and a crew of others, but also a test of the calm and focused thinking for them, during a crisis.
However, during media interviews were held with them later, the pilot spoke Salnbed Chelsea captain and other crew members for their vulnerability to recurrence of the footage of earlier events, in addition to their sense of attention deficit and difficulty sleeping, these are all symptoms of a typical trace of a shock.
The challenges of memory
Although the crash remains a rarity Fortunately, many persons are always other forms of physical and emotional challenges.
Could turn these challenges, in part, to the shocks, because the person mentally retrieved repeatedly.
While many people recover from the effects caused by emotional trauma after the accident, the anxiety disorders appear to others.
Can be the means of psychological treatment to help those persons in the total elimination of allergy-related memories that raise concerns.
However, this means a non-functioning of all persons treated. Suggests that research on the memory, use the ways you may Ttmran good results in the future. The first is the employment of medicines, or other methods to enhance the psychological treatment.
The second route seems a radical way in some respects, as they try to remove the controversial side of fear memory.
Memories «mobile»
Known psychologists and researchers in neuroscience for a long time that memories are formed in stages.
In the beginning, emotional memories are unstable, as they do not constitute more than a pattern of electrical signals in the brain.
However, with the incident when they lead to the emergence of feelings or strong emotions, the proteins and stress hormones, and neurotransmitters, strengthen those signals, which leads to enhance the memories and turn them into lasting memories, or this was the prevailing belief .. So far.
The animal experiments showed that the memories of the frightening memories revitalize itself in a way to return her to her biological unstable.
In order to keep those memories are ongoing, to subject each time to re-strengthened. The pilot studies conducted on groups of humans, they assume that is what leads to the disruption in this process, such as taking medicine, or practice on the type of behavior and even the strong memories can be weakened or strengthened to eliminate them entirely.
Promotion of psychological treatment
Focused psychotherapy for anxiety disorders to try to ease the emotional reactions to what he sees as the patient is scary (such as spiders or heights).
Here, is the «treatment of exposure to the concerns» exposure therapy and one of the most useful starting points.
A type of cognitive behavioral therapy which helps patients to train to respond, differently to stimuli or frightening memories.
Neuroscientists point to this process as a process to root out fear, fear extinction, that is, they prevent a response to fear.
A recent study has indicated that the process of uprooting fear include in fact, the birth of new memories.
So, the fear was the uprooting of these lead to the birth of the memory of «anti-responses» New, strengthening of these new memory by any means may help them to win in competition with the memory that raises concerns.
For this the researchers tested a number of drugs to identify useful with psychotherapy, in order to strengthen the process of uprooting fear.
Several studies have evaluated the indicative, the effectiveness of one of the drugs, antibiotics is «de Sichaeloseren» D-cycloserine which enhances the activity of «Glutamine», a neurotransmitter «a catalyst for the excitement» which activates the brain cells.
In a randomized, double-allocated control drug «de Sichaeloseren» with dummy pills, random, for 28 participants from those who are afraid of heights, before attending the two sessions of exposure treatment default fears.
After a week of that afternoon, the improvement in people who took the drug «de Sichaeloseren», compared with those who took dummy pills, and this seemed to improve, according to their statements, in aspects of their concerns, as well as aspects of their stress after the researchers conducted measurements on connectivity skin they have.
As researchers in the study of evidentiary other conducted on 27 people suffer from the disorder social anxiety, giving participants randomly drug «de Sichaeloseren» or dummy pills, an hour before to attend each meeting of the four sessions of psychological therapy directed to alleviating the concerns of the fear of public speaking.
It appeared that participants who took the drug «de Sichaeloseren» to ease concerns felt immediately after the sessions, as well as after a full year, compared to the others who took the dummy pills.
Also found two other studies that drug Astdlalitan «de Sichaeloseren» may also help to improve responses suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder psychotherapy directed to alleviate their fears and other symptoms.
Worries wiped from memory
However, there are different perspectives are interesting element in the eradication of the fear of memory, or at least remove the strong emotional impact to it. Neuroscientists point to this strategy as the «re-coherence with Degrade» impairing reconsolidation.
However, in order to lead the way therapeutic goals, it must be synchronized in the timing and precisely, so that it is implemented during the retrieval of memories stored or immediately afterwards, and before returning memory to the consistency again, a period which extends for a few hours only.
Because stress hormones such as cortisol helps the cohesion of the exciting memories of fear, researchers often tried to test drugs «beta blockers» beta blockers (which has struggled the effects of these hormones) as a potential means to influence the process of cohesion.
The researchers report in the University of Amsterdam, the results of random control study found that a drug «Propranolol» propranolol, one of the drugs «beta blockers», he can erase frightening memories.
In one of the stages of the experience called «the process of gaining fear» «fear acquisition» 40 volunteers exposed to mild shock every time they saw the pictures of spiders.
So it was not surprising that volunteers quickly learn the fear of spiders, as indicated by responses «panic», which appeared to have when watching spiders again.
When the volunteers were asleep, their brains were re-cohesion of memories about things that they had been subjected during their experience.
It is assumed that this research hippocampus hippocampus in the brain helps the cohesion of the memory the decision-making declarative memory (form spiders), while the amygdala amygdale work on emotional memory coherence (spiders were scary).
On the second day addressed a section of the volunteers, medicine «Propranolol» while the other part dealt with dummy pills. Then watched all the volunteers pictures of spiders again, so that researchers were able, through this experience, the reactivation of memories of frightening and measure the responses «panic» to the volunteers.
Even that moment came the volunteers in both groups responses «Panic» close, when you see them pictures spiders.
Mind and then volunteers to sleep again. The principle theory here is that the drug «Propranolol» will be jamming on the receptors for Ballowesp amygdale, and thus it will prevent the re-cohesion of the fear-related memory, but it will not affect the process of normative coherence of memory in the hippocampus.
Finally, in the third day, the volunteers saw images spiders again.
It appeared that people who ate «Propranolol» were much less panic when they saw the terrible scenes compared with those who took dummy pills.
Is zero, as responses to the panic some of them. At the same time, the volunteers who took the drug «Propranolol» they remember why they were afraid of pictures of spiders (which refers to the decision-making remained good memories), no longer afraid (which assumes that the emotional memory has been changed successfully).
The timing of treatment
However, the timing of drug treatment was the most important things. Over 20 volunteers have others with the same fear during the process of gaining experience, and took the medicine «Propranolol» on the second day without watching pictures spiders again, which means they did not re-activate the frightening memories.
On the third day saw these volunteers Photos spiders again. And they were panicking as they were in the process of acquisition of fear.
This assumes that the memory is frightening must be restored in some way, in order to be returned to their biological vulnerable before he could medicine «Propranolol» from potential coherence.
Control study and found the evidentiary random disorder, 19 patients with Post Traumatic Stress post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) also «Propranolol» able to help erase the emotional content of long-term memory shocked.
The dedicated researchers at McGill University The medicine «Propranolol» or dummy pills for 19 cases of patients with post-traumatic stress and chronic, to eat immediately after he described the events that led to the original shock.
A week after the scientists to monitor heart rate, the degree of sweating, and other physiological parameters as volunteers recovered their memories of those events. It appeared that participants who consumed «Propranolol» a revitalized memories alarming they have lower rates of heart beat, also reported to have the weakest aspects of the physiological stress compared with those who took dummy pills.
Future Trends
Dissemination of researchers at the Universities of New York and Texas results of a study on animals, I assumed that it is possible to overcome the fear of using the means of giving behavioral seizures in the timing, rather than medicine, in order to erase the memories of frightening, although these studies are still in their infancy, the research shows that can be manipulation of memory, any adaptation, to reduce the emotional pain.
Erase the memories of the alarming
- The retrieval of memories of the frightening memories that return to the form of biological unstable, can be manipulated, ie, adaptation.
- The researchers found that it is possible in some cases reduction aspects of memory alarming.
- Although research is still in its infancy, it could strengthen the treatment of anxiety disorders.
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