Wish you could get rid of bad memories? Scientists say they may have found the key
[Scientists] say they have found the key chemical that helps our brains inhibit [...] unwanted, intrusive memories [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00956-z] [DX]. That's a big deal, because the discovery could help pioneer new ways to help people get past debilitating thoughts, according to a new study published in Nature Communications this week.
So what's the key? It's a neurotransmitter called GABA — a chemical in the brain that sends messages between nerve cells, according the study's author, Michael Anderson, a professor at the University of Cambridge. Anderson and the rest of his research team revealed in the study that GABA levels within the hippocampus — a vital part of the brain when it comes to memory — are strong predictors of whether or not you can block unwanted thoughts from resurfacing.
Think of GABA as foot soldiers in the hippocampus, Anderson said in a statement. Their mission? To block your intrusive thoughts. You and your brain's prefrontal cortex (the brain's "master regulator") are the commander of that brigade of neurotransmitter troops, the researchers wrote. But if you don't have enough GABA soldiers on the ground in your hippocampus to block the things your prefrontal cortex doesn't want to think about, you're probably going to keep thinking about them.
"When this capacity breaks down, it causes some of the most debilitating symptoms of psychiatric diseases — intrusive memories, images, hallucinations, ruminations, and pathological and persistent worries," Anderson said.
γ-Aminobutyric acid: That's another ingredient for my homebrewed soma mix.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:05PM (12 children)
I am sure there are some people from extraordinary circumstances who can use these medication, but it's best to face up to whatever demon you are burdened with, and work it out. Blocking it out, essentially ignoring it, temporarily with the aid of chemicals is no different than shooting up heroine to ignore the life's pain.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:28PM (4 children)
Please elaborate your analogy. "Buck up and live with it" can only go so far.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:52PM
There is a very important difference between "buck up" (put up with it) and "face up to it."
Let's say you are a woman who had been sexually molested by your father in your adolescence. I will leave it up to you how the two approaches are different.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:59PM
basically you use somatic therapies, the more challenging the better, to learn to own your self in body-mind and soul. failing to un-dent your self by your own volition, even if its just by way of martial arts or just about anything physical besides sex, you might as well just knock yourself off or live the zombie life. that clear enough? and yeah, sex as a palliative will just get your impulses to ru(i)n you cause you basically won't learn what functional/non-mechanical spontaneity and creativity actually feel like and 'do' for your overall sense of self.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:24PM (1 child)
Do not commit war crimes. Hey, would this work for MadMax, a la Furry Road? So many regrets, so many voices in his head.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:11AM
You know, Vietnam Vets used to swear up and down that anti-war protesters called them "baby-killers". I have known vets of the Iraq clusterfuck who told me about "friends" of theirs who had to mow down kids, because it might be an IED. Nations should not but their citizens in situations like this. And if they do, they certainly should not develop drugs to help them forget that they are, in fact, baby killers. Semper Fi!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday November 06 2017, @09:46PM (2 children)
On the other hand, if that burden is giving you PTSD episodes which convince you to find your nearest gun and murder your family, maybe the happy pills would be a morally defensible choice.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:03PM
Depends on the burden. See my comment above about a rape victim.
I hate to say this, but sometimes violence is the better answer, because the state failed to provide justice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:11PM
read up on patent-free medicines!
for extremes like that, low-dose lithium supplements are usually all you need to rescue friends or your self from thoughts as extreme as those you describe. replace NaCl with full-spectrum mineral salts and teach them to drink water and the person stands a good chance of needing anything anymore in less than a year.
in any case, willfully enslaving your self for life to patent-holders.. without at least attempting to educate your self about other options may not be defensible at all. if you're talking about otherwise mostly sane people anyhow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @01:51AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:18AM
I want to live in an Isekai.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:07AM
There are your burdons and then there are the burdons foisted upon you. Tackling the former makes you a better person, suffering the latter can make you never the same person again. One is foundational the other is the opposite.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:03PM
From your personal experience as someone with obsessive thoughts, PTSD, or a similarly relevant condition?
Or is your post the equivalent of a lifelong Windows user giving well-intentioned advice regarding how to solve package conflicts in Linux?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:05PM
is yet another way to block out unwanted thoughts. Think them, you're experiencing them for a reason, and refusing to look yourself in the mirror or question your own values isn't the solution to them.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:08PM (9 children)
Remember how Seratonin discovery was going to fix all mental problems? How SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) were going to make everyone perfectly happy? It seems it didn't work out that way.
So, I do not buy how anything like this has important effects by itself. The body is a partial differential equation, not a state machine. The flows and changes are more important than many temporary values.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:12PM
extacy is helluva party drug, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:14PM (7 children)
What makes drugs ineffective is that they are systemic rather than localized. That's why there's never been a panacea for "imbalances"; or, if a pharmaceutical therapy does work, the systemic nature of the treatment leads to undesirable side effects.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:31PM (6 children)
Or perhaps there's never been a panacea for "imbalances" because there's no scientific evidence said "imbalances" exist, no way to chemically test for them, and no standard of "balance" to compare them to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:37PM (5 children)
Sure there is a measure. Are you satisfied or not? Do you feel you are a productive member of society? Is your outlook on life positive? Do you feel alienated? Is it hard to be alive? Are you seeing or hearing entities that no one around you seems to perceive?
Come on, man. Nobody is convinced by your war of terminology.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Monday November 06 2017, @10:17PM (4 children)
The only one of your "measurements" that is actually measurable - hallucinations - is a symptom of psychosis, not depression.
This isn't about terminology. This is about the difference between science and pseudoscience.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @01:04AM (3 children)
The patient can give a you measurement for the others; that's the whole point of therapy: To help close the mismatch between a person's fantasy and a person's reality, whether it's psychological or chemical.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday November 07 2017, @03:03PM (2 children)
The patient can tell you that they would like things to be better than they are, but they almost never have a real baseline to compare it to. There are exceptions: women experiencing post-partum depression know what "normal" feels like and can provide a better measurement as to whether they are reaching their desired "normal". But it's still a subjective measurement, and when you consider the millions of people who have lived with mental illness their entire lives without experiencing "normal", it becomes impossible to piece apart the symptoms of the illness from the symptoms of other people reacting negatively to your abnormal behavior. Often, common problems that most people can deal with successfully become the focus of a person's self-criticism even when the real issue is something deeper that is preventing them from dealing with these problems normally.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:33PM (1 child)
You could even make measurements "objective" measurements at that first consultation, say with an fMRI, and then track how treatment affects the measured signals.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday November 08 2017, @05:22PM
To do that, we would need consistent, effective ways to interpret fMRI data into mental health metrics. There are two major problems with this: 1, we don’t have objective mental health metrics or even a baseline “normal” that applies to everyone; and 2, everybody is different and even if you were to tailor the treatment to each individual, your baseline would then be based on the abnormal state you are trying to correct.
These problems could be solved with more research. But right now, we’re not there, and lacking effective objective standards the industry has developed around the best subjective standards that are available.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:12PM (1 child)
Ethanol is a GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators. [wikipedia.org] "GABAA PAMs increase the effect of GABA by making the channel open more frequently or for longer periods." That is, ethanol makes GABA more effective.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:28PM
so does amanita muscaria mushrooms, by acting on a secondary pathway of gaba receptors
these guys are late to the game, but scientific research tends to be far behind what drug users already know
academic research always lags for profit pharmaceuticals and recreational drug use. whenever something is fun, legislation of some kind is usually not far behind
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:31PM
I fear the day governments et. al. use this for nefarious purposes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:03PM (2 children)
for the real deal, just grow some amanita on barley for a week, oven-dry, grind, add hot water and have a fun legal drink.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday November 07 2017, @02:21AM (1 child)
And what's the LD50? Aminita isn't safe.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @01:56PM
Amanita is more than one type. Some are not safe, some are perhaps psychologically unsound, and some are santa claus mushrooms that make reindeer fly and witches brooms streak across the sky and encourage pagan sex rituals (or just uncouth behavior by Christian schoolgirls--and adults)
The LD50 on the destroying angel is not very high... but on the pantherina or muscaria you have to eat more than your brain probably will let your ego handle and the real damage comes from your behavior if you aren't in a safe location with people to prevent you from wigging out physically.
you can eat a number of amanita varieties, but at least read something on erowid first!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @11:12PM
Because... It sucks sometimes.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Post-Nihilist on Tuesday November 07 2017, @12:38AM (1 child)
Where is éthanol fueled when you need him?
Alcohol hit that target and more..
Do you have any recurring vivid traumatic memories?
They are supposed to be partially deleted...
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 07 2017, @01:36AM
Unfortunately, he saved those memories in his journal, and the Internet Archive saved the HTML of those memories.
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