Medal of Honor Case Against Blocking Memories

Medal of Honor Case Against Blocking Memories
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 22, 2013

Why do they keep trying to block memories? Do they really think that will work? If they do then they are not thinking beyond the possibility into the ramifications.

Yet again there is a headline about this. "Antihistamine compound reduces bad memories"

The human genome project has yielded many discoveries about complex human characteristics, but using this information to identify new drugs has largely eluded scientists. Now, researchers have described compounds related to human memory, one of which produced a drug-induced reduction in negative memories.

The researchers, from the University of Basel in Switzerland, believe their findings could aid in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They describe their results in a study published in the journal PNAS.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, PTSD affects around 7.7 million American adults, but children can also suffer from the condition.

This is hardly new. This was in the New York Times in 1990.

A Key to Post-Traumatic Stress Lies In Brain Chemistry, Scientists Find
By DANIEL GOLEMAN
Published: June 12, 1990
Correction Appended

A SINGLE instance of overwhelming terror can alter the chemistry of the brain, making people more sensitive to adrenaline surges even decades later, scientists are finding.

This sensitivity to adrenaline surges is a major factor in post-traumatic stress disorder, in which people can experience normal events as repetitions of the original trauma. The new findings are the first direct evidence that the condition, which affects combat veterans, crime victims and millions of others, has biological basis.

New studies in animals and humans suggest that specific sites in the brain undergo these changes. Scientists say the findings may allow development of medications to blunt the biological changes in post-traumatic stress disorder.

For the brain changes to occur, scientists now say, people usually have to experience the stress as catastrophic, an overwhelming threat to life or safety and one over which they has no control. Less severe stress, such as the death of a loved one or relentless financial problems, do not seem to trigger the biological changes.

''Victims of a devastating trauma may never be the same biologically,'' said Dr. Dennis Charney, a psychiatrist at Yale and director of clinical neuroscience at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

''It does not matter if it was the incessant terror of combat, torture or repeated abuse in childhood, or a one-time experience, like being trapped in a hurricane or almost dying in an auto accident,'' said Dr. Charney. ''All uncontrollable stress can have the same biological impact.''

The more intense the trauma, and the longer it lasts, the more likely it is to result in post-traumatic stress. But researchers are trying to discover why some people exposed to the identical catastrophe develop post-traumatic stress symptoms, while others do not. And though the symptoms can last 40 years or longer, they clear up in some people, either spontaneously or through therapy.

''Understanding the brain basis of post-traumatic stress can help us design a medication that reverses these changes,'' said Dr. Friedman.

While a few existing psychiatric drugs bring relief for some patients, their effects have been hit-or-miss. Following leads from the brain studies, Dr. Friedman said, researchers at several pharmaceutical firms have begun to develop drugs tailored to the specific brain imbalances.

Despite that work, some of those who treat post-traumatic stress hesitate to see it as being entirely due to brain changes. ''The idea that these people reset their central nervous system is intriguing,'' said Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University. ''But I'm troubled reducing everything to biology. It's a human experience, and when you help people with it in psychotherapy, you can help them get over it that way too.''

The search for a drug specific to PTSD is seen as only part of the answer, though. ''You can use a drug to turn down the volume of the physiological symptoms, so people feel less driven, anxious, can sleep better and have fewer nightmares,'' said Dr. Friedman. ''But there are other problems, such as alienation, emotional numbness, guilt and moral pain that you need psychotherapy for.''

read more here

What if a Medal of Honor hero were given a drug to block his memories. Could you imagine that conversation? So tell me, what did you do to earn the Medal of Honor? "Gee they told me what I did but I don't remember it."

Audie Murphy received the Medal of Honor after WWII. He also had PTSD. He passed away in 1971.

The most decorated soldier in US Military history, Audie Murphy, suffered from PTSD

Murphy suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his return from the war. He was plagued by insomnia, bouts of depression, and nightmares related to his numerous battles. His first wife, Wanda Hendrix, often talked of his struggle with this condition, even claiming that he had at one time held her at gunpoint. For a time during the mid-1960s, he became dependent on doctor-prescribed sleeping pills called Placidyl. When he recognized that he had become addicted to the drug, he locked himself in a motel room where he took himself off the pills, going through withdrawal for a week.

He was not only a hero on the battlefield, but was later a champion of returning veterans Always an advocate of the needs of America's military veterans, Murphy eventually broke the taboo about publicly discussing war-related mental conditions. In an effort to draw attention to the problems of returning Korean and Vietnam War veterans, Murphy spoke out candidly about his own problems with PTSD, known then and during World War II as "battle fatigue" and also commonly known as "shell shock." He called on the United States government to give increased consideration and study to the emotional impact that combat experiences have on veterans, and to extend health care benefits to address PTSD and other mental-health problems suffered by returning war veterans.

Do they ever consider what else will be blocked along with these memories? Do they ever think that maybe the veterans would be better off if they could find peace living with the memories instead? After all, they are not just full of memories. They are filled with emotions that go with them as well.

These reports have been coming out for far too long to pretend any of this is new. It would be unforgivable to pretend money is at the bottom of all of these repeated research projects. Would be nice if they actually came up with something new.