Fearful Memory? Fuggedaboutit.

From the Boston Globe :

Merel Kindt, a clinical psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, has found that use of a common high blood pressure drug may help disrupt the process that leads to the brain encoding a fearful memory.

Kindt and colleagues showed pictures of spiders to study subjects, and combined that with a mild shock to create a fearful association. Then, half the participants were given propranolol, a beta-blocker often used in heart disease. The other half were given a placebo pill.

At the end of the three days, researchers again presented the pictures of the spiders, but without a shock. Subjects who had taken propranolol at the time of memory recall had a decreased fear response, but the placebo group continued to be startled. “The drug probably blocks the process that restores the fearful memory,” says Kindt.