Heart Drug Blocks Traumatic Memories

A new study shows that beta blockers, a widely used blood pressure drug, may help people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People who witness a traumatic event usually develop PTSD, and beta blockers have been proved to help ease distress caused by the memories of such an event.

Post traumatic stress disorder affects 33% of the people who have witnessed traumatic events, and distressing memories can be triggered by as little as a smell or a noise. Counseling is given to people suffering from PTSD, but this has not always been a successful method, so researchers tried to find alternative ways of treating PTSD.

Cornell University psychiatrists conducted animal trials on rats, as well as some human preliminary tests. Beta blockers do not erase or diminish the memories, researchers say; however, they found that beta blocker propranolol, used during an attack of PTSD, helps separate fear from the memory that triggered it.

Each time a subject experiences fear in a PTSD attack, catecholamines (adrenalin hormones) are released, that make the memory more intense. Propanolol blocks one of the receptors catecholamines work on, explains Dr. Altemus, associate professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, New York City and lead researcher of the study. Thus, individuals who receive such treatment should gradually be able to remember the triggering event without the accompanying panic and fear.

Rats were made to fear a tone that was followed by an electric shock, and it was noted that they lost the fear if beta blocker propanolol was administered after the tone started. Similar results were noted in the preliminary tests with human subjects.

However, scientists admit that at this point of the research, it's too early to tell how well beta blockers might work even as a therapeutic aid. Two small studies that treated people right when the accident happened have already shown that beta blocker propanolol could reduce the emotional intensity of traumatic memories. Cornell researchers plan to recruit 60 patients for a trial that looks at the effect of propanolol when symptoms of PTSD are experienced (increased heart rate, breathing difficulties). Only one patient has enrolled so far.

Other medications approved by the FDA for such a condition include the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) Paxil and Zoloft, but the best method so far seems to have been the exposure therapy, where the patient is exposed to stimuli associated with the traumatic event.

The findings have already raised issues of ethics: concerns have been expressed that beta blockers could be used by the military, for example, in order to have soldiers desensitized to violence.

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