New drug fights PTSD by suppressing memories

Why not just sell a home lobotomy kit.......$19.95......please pay for it before you use it.....got a girlfriend you dont like any more.....ex-wife driving you crazy........this is Billy Mays........get it now....on another note....can anything be done on Current where the apostrophe works properly.....I don't know why it does what it does.......&#8212....is that secret code....Golden Ruler......Will...........

Let the soothing cannibanoids melt away the worries in your mind.

I'm with everyone else on here. A little bit of Medical Cannabis and they will feel much better. No reason to kill yourself taking some crazyass-bigpharma-manufactured-side-effects worse than what you have drug!

This is just their way of trying to keep the soldiers in service longer if you ask me... It has nothing to do with helping them.

good to see that our old method of making psychological problems worse with drugs is still alive and kicking. I maintain that pharmecutical companies are one of the main reasons our society is going to shit. This is like putting a bandaid on an infected wound, its out of sight, but underneath its festering and getting worse..

ever taken " Provigil " ? look it up . an "anti-dote" to the kind of wire crossing cluster f--k traumatic experiences which Propranolol is being marketed to treat would be a drug with the exact opposite ( antagonist) effect of "Provigil" - and the "drug" with the ideal profile wouldn't be something like Propranolol - it would be an opiate , or alcohol - or MDMA .

This is just another drug designed to keep people buying pills every month.

Really bad idea... How inhuman are we going to allow ourselves to be and what the hell are we getting in return for all of this? Seriously why the hell are we doing this to our own people let alone "the other"?

Chemically suppressed memories? Yes, and I'd like to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn...

Propranolol could be used by a wide range of people because PTSD is not an exclusive aliment of soldiers. It just so happens that this medical procedure is wrapped up with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because they’re looked at as an obvious producer of PTSD. I’m sure if the military was sufficiently interested in the wellbeing of their soldiers we wouldn’t hear about this procedure through the major media. Instead there would be numerous stories popping up everywhere about soldiers returning from Iraq without a single memory of what they did.

So I think the real question is who would stand to benefit mostly from a memory dampening drug? I think the rape and assault victims, witnesses to horrible situations and the like would probably benefit the most since they’re less likely to be prepared to deal with a traumatic experience. If you witnessed a horrible traffic accident would you take a pill to lessen the emotional response of that memory? I personally wouldn’t, but then again I know plenty of people who would.

Ultimately I think it comes down to a personal decision. We all have the freedom to think what we want and so we should equally have the freedom to forget so long as the technology is available and safe.

This is really weird.

I don't want to see anyone suffer, and I worked at a Veteran's Hospital a while back and saw the effects of PTSD, brain injury, adjustment disorders, etc.

But developing a pill that makes people forget things? It's so sci-fi horror, so eternal sunshine, I just don't know how to feel!

this is where MDMA comes in . i'd like to see guys eventually participating in group therapy sessions where , under supervision , they're able to talk , share and regain the kind of emotional functionality they need . you have the gov't to thank , and morons like Leary ,who managed to create a climate of fear that prevented MDMA from being researched just as it was showing potential .

Wait the government just actually invented the "flashy thingy" from Men in Black? That's just great.

They're called Devil Pills. They are designed to turn off a person's guilt feelings and thus desensitize soldiers to the horrors of killings, deaths, rapes, etc. In short, VERY VERY VERY DANGEROUS PROPOSITION. They'll French-fry your brain.

lets stop the source of PTSD, WAR

I agree with the "this is not a good idea" crowd. 10 years from now we'll be reading a story like this about the people treated with this drug, having similar or worse side effects. I too have a nephew was in Iraq a couple of times, he didn't seem to go through anything too tramatic, at least that he's talked about, but fighting depression, lack of sleep/rest, etc.

This sounds like an insanely dangerous way to "treat" this problem.

We're talking about suppression here, not any kind of relief.

What if there was a relapse? It would come back to the sufferer exponentially worse than before.

They need therapy and human compassion, not drugs!

Cool. Not only can they forget the wrongs they did, they can forget the crimes they witnessed, and maybe even their 15th birthday. Sweet, now there are more effective ways for the government to make sure they're the only ones who know the secrets. Good going guys.

treat the cause not the symtoms...stop sending people to war...

Yeah, I'm all for NOT pushing any big pharma drugs. F that. Smoke a bunch of pot. GO NATURAL.

Fantastic pic, by the way. A picture speaks a thousand words etc....

Surely it's better not to send people into situations where they're going to have to see and do such horrific things? Yes, medication for people already affected by post-traumatic stress disorder will no doubt be helpful to them, but that's not addressing the basic humane issue of how people are expected to behave in times of conflict, and how bloody hard we should work so that those conflicts don't arise in the first place.

I have a nephew that was involved in a disastrous mishap in Iraq.....it led to the death of several children......he went over the edge and has not returned....he was raised in Love and Kindness.....cared for all living things.....went in the army to get an education.....rebelling against many that did not want it.....he was stationed in Hawaii.....then Australia.....thought it could not get better........then Iraq....there are two groups of people.....kind..loving ones.....and destructive ones filled with hatred..... usually by their parents......the first group can not handle the atrocities of war....they are destroyed by them......the second group sometimes actually enjoys war........there are enough of the second group to maintain a large army......might have to take some out of prison.......the kind ones should not have to sell their soul for the promise of an education and a better life.........Golden Ruler......Will.....

PTSD is emotionally painful and anxiety provoking whether it is from combat or sexual abuse. As a therapist I have grave concerns about a drug that will affect memories. If the U.S.A. would spend money on veterans giving them proper treatment which is effective with PTSD then repressing memories would not need to be done. This sounds like another "cost effective measure" at the expense of our Veterans.

I bet the U.S.A. doesn't skimp on its payments to Halliburton.

From what I understand, the suicide rate is unusually high already for those in active service. Also, violent crime by veterans is on the upswing as well.

The irony is that, as much as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are loathed by the general public, the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who fight at the behest of an unpopular president and his cronies are held in pretty high esteem overall.

It's the government, and this administration, who are not stepping up to the plate and helping these people who have given their lives, sometimes quite literally, to serve this country. The scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital and the criminal mismanagement of the Veterans Administration are one two examples of a much larger problem (...John McCain, in a related issue, resisted legislation to expand the popular GI Bill program).

As for a pill that cures PTSD, I don't buy it. Sure, there are drugs that treat the symptoms (anxiety, sleep deprivation, etc.) but the underlying psychological problems are too complex and varied to be medicated away like a head cold or a migraine.

Psychotherapy has shown results, but it is expensive, time consuming, and, worst of all, it doesn't fit in with the culture of "medicate first, ask questions later."

Old Herb cannabis works better

I have mixed feelings about this