Beta-blockers relieve fear factor from scary memories
New research suggests that a class of drugs called beta-blockers can alleviate the anxiety associated with scary memories while leaving the memories intact. While beta blockers are commonly used to treat heart conditions, some musicians and public performers have used the drugs "off-label" to help overcome stagefright. Last year, McGill University neurobiologists reported that beta-blockers seemed to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Now, University of Amsterdam psychologist Merel Kindt and colleagues published a paper in Nature Neuroscience that confirms the PTSD clinical study. From Science News:
Kindt and her colleagues showed subjects a photograph of a spider, which was accompanied by an electric shock, conditioning the participants to have a fearful memory of the image. Later, some participants were given a beta-blocker drug, propranolol, and others were given a placebo before being exposed to the image again. The beta-blocker group’s fear response was greatly reduced or even eliminated when the subjects were shown the spider photograph 24 hours after taking the drugs. “The people did not forget seeing the photograph of the spider,” Kindt says. ”But the fear associated with the image was erased.”Beta-blockers erase emotion of fearful memories
The researchers think beta-blockers work by changing the way the frightening memories are stored. Each time a memory is recalled it changes a little, and the new version is recorded in the long-term memory stash via brain chemical fluctuations in a process called reconsolidation. The beta-blockers could interfere with the brain chemicals, blocking reconsolidation of the emotional component of the memory, but leaving the rest of the memory intact, the scientists suggest.
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Beta Blockers also have a long list of side effects and are rarely used by competent physicians.
These side effects include impotence, which I believe is a good side effect, should rockers be using them. Gives new meaning to Limp Biskit, u think?
I love the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind quality of this treatment. This isn't quite so drastic as the movie, which is fortunate. I think it could be a very helpful treatment for people who are suffering from bad memories of traumatic events.
On a separate not, I wonder if Beta Blockers would be considered performance enhancing drugs if they help calm the nerves before a sports event?
Beta Blockers lower the pumping volume of the heart to reduce blood pressure. They also have the sort of instant Zen effect of relieving anxiety. Musicians and other performers use them prior to going on. They enhance concentration while relieving anxiety. They are generic.
There are a number of BP medicines that work in different ways. The most popular are ACE inhibitors which act against the blood vessels constricting, Beta Blockers which work as noted, and HCTZ which is a diuretic. Only HCTZ has been shown to be effective in terms of reduced morbidity.
All the BP medicines have been the subject of studies but not on the same scale as HCTZ.
I am on beta blockers for a heart condition. I don't know that I am a good candidate for even anecdotal evidence for this effect because I was extremely calm even before my heart failed. Now, I'm calm as a matter of survival -- perhaps it's just being supported by it!
And <3 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Gee, I want to do research where I get to electrocute people.
I signed up for the wrong science. All chemists get to do is blow things up (and then get fired for it).
A doctor once gave me a beta blocker as a stage fright drug right before I did a solo guitar performance before a big crowd. It worked, but had a bizarre and wonderful side effect:
About an hour later, after I'd gotten home, I got out my guitar and played one of the songs I'd performed. As I played it there in my apartment, I saw a perfect image of everything I'd seen during the earlier performance, as if a movie had been recorded by my eyes.
I could tell which way I was looking at each moment, I could see every expression on the faces in the audience, it was extremely vivid and detailed, and a perfect playback.
I was so astounded and thrilled that I immediately played the song again, but the effect had begun to fade and eventually no longer worked.
But wow.
"On a separate not, I wonder if Beta Blockers would be considered performance enhancing drugs if they help calm the nerves before a sports event?"
If the team tries it, I doubt their opponents would complain-- the "beta" in beta blocker is for the beta-adrenergic receptors that it blocks...the ones that are triggered by adrenalin/epinephrine and norepinephrine. In short, the drug antagonizes getting "pumped up".
I take beta blockers for my Grave's Disease. It alleviates the symptoms, as the anti thyroid hormones lower my overall tsh levels.
I didn't find out about the calming effects of beta blockers until after I started taking it. I have to say it's effective. At the time I was struggling to maintain a calm, despite working as a nurse with it's inherent stress. Taking the beta blockers really helped in that respect.
Of course, I'm going into remission here, and won't be needing them anymore, so I'll be returning to my old harried self, I suppose.
Interesting technology, but there's usually good reasons for the anxiety and fear experienced, and nature seems to be designed for our brains to work the way it does with those experiences, so perhaps the use of these medications may distort the lessons learned by us therefrom, eh?
And maybe that's not so good, eh?
But it depends as ever on what's better for the health of the individual who is to use this tech.
I am a musician who uses beta blockers for stage fright (and did so tonight for a gig I was nervous about!)
To those who were asking about the "unfair advantage" that beta blockers may give to an athlete (or musician), this is a big debate in the music world. The consensus among those educated about it is that the drugs don't enhance ability, only help to reduce distractions if they are overwhelming during a performance.
Of course, not many people or even musicians are educated about beta blockers - more than half of musicians who have used them have done so illegally, though it is easy to acquire a prescription.
As for the side effects, the way the music job market has been tending for musicians over the last... 100 years(!), the world could do with fewer baby Mozarts.
@cicada: A trip to Wikipedia would have answered that.
Makes sense. Beta blockers supposedly nuke the fight or flight response. Since there's a theory that memories are actually rewritten every time you recall them (so your most pristine ones are actually ones you haven't given much thought since the occurrence, strangely enough.)
So it makes sense that perhaps if recall the memory in a state where you don't get a crazy adrenaline surge, it might get re-remembered in this toned-down way.
@ugly canuck: You've obviously never suffered from a phobia or anxiety disorder.
Thankfully, that is correct.