A Drug to "Forget" Trauma?

In the past it has been accepted in neuroscience and psychiatry that, once formed, emotional memories linked to "fear are permanent," explains Richard Friedman.  Afraid of spiders? The best you could hope for was the ability to tolerate them. You could never really get "rid of the initial fear." 

Richard Friedman, professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who also serves as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, discusses a new drug therapy that he says can fight fear at its source -- memory.  

Dr. Friedman cites a recent study done by Merel Kindt, a professor of psychology at the University of Amsterdam. The experiment gave participants a beta-blocker called propranolol and then exposed them to spiders. The combination seemingly "erased the emotional fear response in healthy people with arachnophobia." 

"You're not removing biographical memory," Dr. Friedman tells Brian, "You'll still remember that you were afraid of spiders. You're just taking away the emotional fear." 

Dr. Friedman finds the results promising: This new approach could be effective in treating other "anxiety disorders, like PTSD."