Last week, a team of Dutch researchers announced they had managed to wipe fearful memories with a drug used to treat high blood pressure.

They created a memory in 60 volunteers by associating pictures of spiders with a mild electric shock.

When the researchers administered the beta-blocker drug Propranolol before reactivation of the fearful memory, there was a reduction in the startled response and the volunteers were far less disturbed by the spider pictures.

The drugs are meant for dealing with severe trauma, such as the after-effects of a natural disaster but should you ever meddle with the mind to that extent?

We ask two experts if they would ever pop such a pill. Memory is malleable and it is relatively easy to change it or to plant false ones, for both traumatic events and more mundane ones.

In terms of crime, it is possible that a victim who took the drug might be less able to convict someone and people argue they have an obligation to society not to forget.

But I lean towards the side of freedom; we should have the choice. We are finding that most people also want a choice but wouldn't want the drug.


They may change their mind if they were to live for just one day with fully- blown post-traumatic shock.

My research collaborators in this area say they wouldn't take it but I might.

Not because memory is less special to me now I know how easy it is to manipulate but because I don't want to live with unnecessary pain if there was a way to avoid it.

More than 100 years ago, the philosopher George Santayana said that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

Our memories are stern teachers and make us wiser. Another philosopher, Ralph Emerson, called memory “the thread on which the beads of man are strung”.

Remove the bad or good ones and you will be a different person. Safety is an issue; will there be physical or psychological side-effects?

Is it possible to target one specific traumatic memory without erasing others?

The person may feel confused, unable to understand certain feelings and experiences and may suffer dementia or depression.

The drug may be used by criminals to destroy evidence or individuals may use it as a quick-fix remedy instead of tackling the root of problems.

A life without any kind of sadness or disappointment is no life at all. It would be catastrophic if, at the slightest hurt, people would take the memory pill.

It would change what it means to be human. www.medicalethicist.net

Treating Trauma

Chartered psychologist and psychotherapist Dr Lesley Perman-Kerr treats patients who have been through a dramatic experience such as kidnap.

A recent case involved an Iraqi family where the wife and children were released but the father was murdered within hearing distance of the children.

'After a traumatic experience, the person lives in a state of red alert so is jumpy and anxious,' she explains.

'The part of the brain that deals with emotion isn't logical so they can't put that memory behind them.'

Another classic symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is flashbacks: 'The brain can't understand the traumatic experience so constantly rewinds it, like rewatching a part of a film you can't understand,' she continues.

'They are put through the situation again and again by sounds and smells. It's terribly exhausting.'

Most of these individuals will live in a 'fight or flight' mode – which is why, when soldiers come back from war, you should never throw a party for them: 'Their brains cannot cope with that level of input and they may react aggressively to the overwhelming situation,' Dr Perman-Kerr explains.

These patients are commonly treated with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EDMR) Treatment.

It requires clients to focus on the traumatic event while the practitioner repeatedly activates opposite sides of the brain using right and left eye movement (following a finger or light just moving the eyes).

This bilateral stimulation of the brain allows clients to 'break the loop' and process traumatic information that previously seemed stuck.

How people cope with trauma has nothing to do with personality; the strongest person can turn into a shell of themselves ifthey have been through a dramatic experience.

Dr Perman-Kerr also recommends yoga on top of the EMDR treatment.

'Yoga is particularly useful when someone has been through a trauma. The mind is flooded with sounds and feelings all the time; it's as if the brain has blown a single fuse in a bid to stop blowing the whole mind. After the trauma it needs time to repair itself and needs calm and quiet to do this.'

After seeing some of these cases, would Dr Perman-Kerr take propranolol? 'You should keep the process as natural as possible. I personally wouldn't.' www.vivantartemis.com

Memory boosting techniques

To improve your memory munch on leafy, green and root vegetables such as watercress, carrots, sweet potatoes and broccoli. They have nutrients such as phospholipids, which support brain function.

Do you have difficulty remembering names? According to Ed Cooke's book Remember, Remember, names are hard to remember because they are forgettable sounds. You need to give extra meaning. He gives an example of Andy Bush; remember him as a bush with hands.

Take the herb ginkgo biloba. Research shows it has memory-boosting properties as it allows a better blood flow – packed with oxygen and nutrients – get to your brain.

Before you fall asleep, let information you want to remember run through your mind several times.

Researchers at the Israel Weizmann Institute of Science found that sleep helps the brain consolidate information and retain new facts