A Pill to Make You Forget Painful Memories!

There are incidents in life which are so painful that we wish we could just forget them. Now, this might be possible by just popping in a pill to wipe out sad and painful memories.

US researchers have discovered that proteins can be removed from the brain's fear centre to wipe out traumatic memories.

Soon, Scientists Can 'Delete' Your Painful Memories!
It might sound like a scene straight from a science fiction flick, but scientists claim they have found a way to permanently delete painful memories from the mind.

Their findings could be of benefit to soldiers who have experienced distressing events and victims of violence, or even help couples get over the hurt of painful break-ups.

Professor Richard Huganir and his colleagues discovered a 'window of vulnerability' when unique receptor proteins are created in the brain as painful memories are made. Because the proteins are unstable, they could be removed with drugs to eliminate the memory forever.

"When a traumatic event occurs, it creates a fearful memory that can last a lifetime and have a debilitating effect on a person's life," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

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We all experience the pain grief brings at some point of our lives. Some ultimately adapt to it but for a substantial minority, it's impossible to let go. Now, a group of researchers

He said his findings "raise the possibility of manipulating those mechanisms with drugs to enhance behavioural therapy for such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder."

However, Kate Farinholt, of a mental health support group in Maryland, is not entirely convinced by the idea.

Painful Memories may be Erased by Anti-Fear Drug
Scientists have said that it is possible to overcome bad memories of painful situations with the help of a chemical that works on the brain.

"Erasing a memory and then everything bad built on that is an amazing idea. But completely deleting a memory is a little scary. How do you remove a memory without removing a whole part of someone's life, and is it best to do that, considering that people grow and learn from their experiences?" she asked.

Paul Root Wolpe, of the Centre for Ethics, at Emory University in Atlanta, said, "Human identity is tied into memory. It creates our distinctive personalities. It's a troublesome idea to begin to be able to manipulate that, even if for the best of motives."

It's Very Difficult To Remove the Painful Memories: Study
The reason painful memories linger no matter how hard you try to forget them is because they are the hardest to erase, a new study has found.

Source-ANI