Sowmyaa, This medicine is not OTC. These kind of drugs are called meta blockers and administered by doctors. This particular medicine is being used to treat Hypertension and Post-traumatic stress disorder for a long time and it serves the same purpose that we are discussing. It doesn't erase the memory but eases the pain.
Yesterday night, I was watching 60 minutes on CBS where Lesley Stahl did a documentary on chemical substances which make our memories stronger and weaker.
Ardrenaline makes our memories stronger.
Propranolol makes our memories weaker/makes them seem less embarrassing or traumatic. This is the drug which is being debated on.
Propranolol is given to trauma patients to help them alleviate stress. However, there are critics to this kind of treatment, who state that our memories make us who we are.
The Doctors who are prescribing it do not think there is anything wrong with wanting to forget an unpleasant memory.
To give a quote from the program:
"Let's suppose you have a person who comes in after a physical assault and they've had some bones broken, and they're in intense pain. Should we deprive them of morphine because we might be taking away the full emotional experience? Who would ever argue that?" Pitman replies.
"No," Stahl says.
"Why should psychiatry be different? I think that somehow behind this argument lurks the notion that mental disorders are not the same as physical disorders. That treating them or not is more of an optional thing," Pitman says.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/60minutes/main2205 629_page4.shtml
Do you think Propranolol should be used for only post traumatic stress disorders? Or do you think its OK to use it for smaller things such as forgetting an embarrassing moment?
i think drugs should be used wherever they can help... drugs save lives.. so thats fine...
Sowmyaa, This medicine is not OTC. These kind of drugs are called meta blockers and administered by doctors. This particular medicine is being used to treat Hypertension and Post-traumatic stress disorder for a long time and it serves the same purpose that we are discussing. It doesn't erase the memory but eases the pain.
u mean beta blockers?
I agree, atleast when its more related to mental condition then physical. Why to mess with memory or brain cells, not worth the risk