A Pill To Forget?

Can A Medication Suppress Traumatic Memories?

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Nov. 26, 2006. It was updated on June 14, 2007.

If there were something you could take after experiencing a painful or traumatic event that would permanently weaken your memory of what had just happened, would you take it? As correspondent Lesley Stahl first reported last fall, it’s an idea that may not be so far off, and that has some critics alarmed, and some trauma victims filled with hope.

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"I couldn't get my body to stop shaking. I was trembling, constantly trembling. Memories of it would just come back, reoccurring over and over and over," subway conductor Beatriz Arguedas recalls.

A year ago September, Beatriz was driving her normal route on the Red Line in Boston when one of her worst fears came to pass: "Upon entering one of the busiest stations, a man jumped in front of my train, to commit suicide," she explains.

Beatriz saw the man jump. "We sort of made eye contact and then I felt the thud from him hitting the train and then the crackling sound underneath the train and, then, of course, my heart starts thumping," she recalls.

"She came into our emergency room afterwards, very upset. No physical injury. Entirely a psychological trauma," says Dr. Roger Pitman, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School who has studied and treated patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, for 25 years.

"They're caught up so much with this past event that it's constantly in their mind," Pitman explains. "They're living it over and over and over as if it's happening again. And they just can't get involved in real life."

When Beatriz arrived in the emergency room, Pitman enrolled her in an experimental study of a drug called propranolol, a medication commonly used for high blood pressure ... and unofficially for stage fright. Pitman thought it might do something almost magical – trick Beatriz’s brain into making a weaker memory of the event she had just experienced.

In the study, which is still under way, half the subjects get propranolol; half get a placebo.

Asked whether he knows if Beatriz got the drug or the placebo, Dr. Pitman says he has no idea and neither does she, and that the research team won't know for another two years.

If Pitman is right, the results could fundamentally change the way accident victims, rape victims, even soldiers are treated after they experience trauma.

The story begins with some surprising discoveries about memory. It turns out our memories are sort of like Jello – they take time to solidify in our brains. And while they're setting, it's possible to make them stronger or weaker. It all depends on the stress hormone adrenaline.

The man who discovered this is James McGaugh, a professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine.

[mstonie-2009]

I RECENTLY VIEWED THE EPISODE ON THE MEMORY FORGETING PILL Propranolol AND I WISH I HAD SOME TO TAKE REGARDLESS IF IT IS FDA APPROVED OR NOT..I HAVE LIVED WITH THE HORRIFIC MEMORIES OF MY CHILDREN DEATHS AND IT'S BEEN 17 YEARS AND I HAVE TRIED EVERY THING THERE IS TO TAKE AND HAVE YET TO GET ANYTHING THAT KEEPS ME FROM BEING STUCK. BEING ALIVE DOES NOT MAKE IT EASIER TO FUNCTION DAILY AND UNLESS YOU HAVE LIVED THROUGH A TRAGEDY THEN YOU NEVER KNOW THE EXPERIENCE IT IS TO LIVE IN A STUCK STATE OF MIND.

[carly710]

The problem with propranolol is that one of the main side effects is depression. Part of PTSD is problems with depression. Therefore, in many of the cases, in order to take propranolol, one would have to take an antidepressant to counteract the side effect of the original drug. Surely, a researche can develop something better!

[renmak]

So if the drug works by blocking adrenaline, thus diffusing a memory, why not study the use of adrenaline to treat memory impairment such as Alzheimer's???? I have seen Alzheimer's patients improve for several seconds after having what they perceived as a frightening experience. Apparently the fear produced a surge of adrenaline and their cognition was improved momentarily.

[ladyrainbo]

I have suffered from PTSD since childhood but wasn't diagnosed until my 40's. No one who hasn't suffered from this could possibly understand how debilitating it is.

I have worked in the mental health field and have observed how none psychiatric doctors prescribe psychotropics inappropriately.

I think all psychotropics should be the domain of the psychiatrists who understand the actions of the drugs better then a general practitioner. I've seen way too many elderly over medicated with psychotropics.

That being said, I think this drug should also be available with the condition that if it is prescribed by a non psychiatrist, it MUST be for a documented medical condition.

For the purposes of easing traumatic memory, let's the the prescriptions to the head shrinkers.

[ladyrainbo]

I have suffered from PTSD since childhood but wasn't diagnosed until my 40's. No one who hasn't suffered from this could possibly understand how debilitating it is.

I have worked in the mental health field and have observed how none psychiatric doctors prescribe psychotropics inappropriately.

I think all psychotropics should be the domain of the psychiatrists who understand the actions of the drugs better then a general practitioner. I've seen way too many elderly over medicated with psychotropics.

That being said, I think this drug should also be available with the condition that if it is prescribed by a non psychiatrist, it MUST be for a documented medical condition.

For the purposes of easing traumatic memory, let's the the prescriptions to the head shrinkers.

[donnie900]

Women are lucky. They give birth and forget. And men live their whole lives in pain, and can't forget.

[patricia64-2009]

This story should be balanced by a look at the non-pill solutions available for the treatment of PTSD. There are non-talking therapies, such as EMDR, acupuncture, homeopathy, yoga, imagery that relieve nervous system trauma without side effects. Drugs ALWAYS have side effects, be it little, be it later. Why do we have such paltry education and press on alternatives?

[earnshaw8]

I was horrified by your segment 'A Pill To Forget?' on the abuse potential of Propranolol which is easily availabe by prescription for other medical uses.

On the other hand could the drug be used as a treatment for pedophilia? Perhaps human sexual urges are reinforced by the strong memories formed by adrenalin production during sexual encounters.

Just wondering.

[junkmale4]

For the past three or four years, I have been taking propanolol (20mg 3x/day) for migraines, to reduce my blood pressure. I also take Zoloft (100mg 2x/day) and Welbutrin (150mg 1x or 2x/day) to moderate the drops in serotonin and dopamine levels which cause incapacitating depression.

I have not found that propanolol helps me forget traumatic events of 30+ years ago that destroyed my life. But the raw-edged rage has become a more low-key black gloom and hopeless despair. I guess despair is less sociopathic than rage, so that is a plus for the Zoloft.

[junkmale4]

For the past three or four years, I have been taking propanolol (20mg 3x/day) for migraines, to reduce my blood pressure. I also take Zoloft (100mg 2x/day) and Welbutrin (150mg 1x or 2x/day) to moderate the drops in serotonin and dopamine levels which cause incapacitating depression.

I have not found that propanolol helps me forget traumatic events of 30+ years ago that destroyed my life. But the raw-edged rage has become a more low-key black gloom and hopeless despair. I guess despair is less sociopathic than rage, so that is a plus for the Zoloft.