Stock Market Losses Can Now Be Erased

Blood pressure drug can also be used to erase memory

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) – A widely available blood pressure pill could one day help people erase bad memories, perhaps treating some anxiety disorders and phobias, according to a Dutch study published on Sunday.
The drug was shown to significantly weaken people’s fearful memories of spiders. The generic beta-blocker propranolol significantly weakened people’s fearful memories of spiders among a group of healthy volunteers who took it, said Merel Kindt, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, who led the study.

“We could show that the fear response went away, which suggests the memory was weakened,” Kindt said in a telephone interview.

The findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience are important because the drug may offer another way to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems related to bad memories.