
Sexual Abuse Support Group
Sexual abuse is a relative cultural term used to describe sexual relations and behavior between two or more parties which are considered criminally and/or morally offensive. Different types of sexual abuse involve: Non-consensual, forced physical sexual behavior such as rape, incest or sexual assault, or psychological forms of abuse, such as verbal sexual behavior or...

deleted_user
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15025-eternal-sunshine-drug-selectively-erases-memories.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
Read this it is quite intruiging...
I wonder if it is advanced enough to treat abuse victims...unless that is too complex...I doubt it but it is definitely interesting:
"Eternal Sunshine' drug selectively erases memories"
17:52 23 October 2008 by Ewen Callaway
For those haunted by thoughts of an old flame or a tragic accident, the chance to selectively erase memories might be tempting.
Now scientists have moved a step closer to that possibility by wiping away a month-old memory in genetically engineered laboratory mice, while leaving other memories unchanged.
The researchers boosted levels of a protein called ?-CaMKII involved in memory storage and retrieval, just as mice recalled the pain of receiving a light shock. This had the effect of dispelling the memory.
"I don't think it's possible to use our method in humans, whether it's now or in the future," says Joe Tsien, a neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. "But it does suggest that perhaps you can look into downstream targets [of ?-CaMKII]. Maybe some pharmaceutical company is looking at that."
Shattered belief
Tsien's experiments aren't the first to raise the prospect of selective memory erasure.
Several years ago, researchers showed that injecting mice with a drug that stops new proteins from forming can block an old memory as it is recalled.
And last year, another team found that inhibiting a specific protein can erase old memories, even without recalling them.
These experiments have helped shatter the century-old belief that memories are an indelible anatomical feature of the brain, says neuroscientist Todd Sacktor, of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Rather, memories are the stuff of molecular connections, constantly built and destroyed by specific enzymes.
"There are actually key molecules that have specific role in long-term memory," he says. "It's a real big shift in thinking."
Shock treatment
Based on previous experiments that showed that ?-CaMKII was important to a cellular phenomenon thought to underlie memory formation, Tsien's team bred mice engineered to make extra levels of the enzyme. His team could return their ?-CaMKII levels to normal by giving the mice a drug that blocked only the engineered copy.
To test the effect of the change, Tsien and colleagues at the East China Normal University in Shanghai gave mice a slight shock in a training chamber while playing a loud tone.
With thoughts of a jolt fresh in their brain, mice with normal levels of ?-CaMKII froze up when they returned to the chamber an hour later, while mice with boosted levels remained calm.
Even a month after the shock - enough time for mice to store the memory for good - cranking up ?-CaMKII eroded all memories of the shock treatment, Tsien's team found.
The memory also seemed completely lost, not temporarily unavailable. Six weeks after the initial conditioning and two weeks after the initial erasure, engineered mice treated so they expressed normal levels of ?-CaMKII could not retrieve memories of the shock.
Value of recall
Tsien's team is still trying to explain how turning up a single protein can erase specific memories, but he thinks the protein weakens brain cell connections that were built up when the memory was first made.
"This paper is a real revolution in how we think about long term memory," says Sacktor, who last year showed that blocking an enzyme called PKM-zeta erases long-term memories in rats, while leaving their ability to form new ones unchanged. It is not yet clear which route to memory removal will prove most useful in humans, he says.
Tsien, however, cautions against applying his team's results to expunging thoughts of broken hearts or limbs. "All memories, even very painful emotional memories, have their purposes. We learn from those experiences to avoid making the same kind of mistake."
What does everyone think about this then? I'm sceptical but it does sound interesting I must admit...
Any thoughts?
Read this it is quite intruiging...
I wonder if it is advanced enough to treat abuse victims...unless that is too complex...I doubt it but it is definitely interesting:
"Eternal Sunshine' drug selectively erases memories"
17:52 23 October 2008 by Ewen Callaway
For those haunted by thoughts of an old flame or a tragic accident, the chance to selectively erase memories might be tempting.
Now scientists have moved a step closer to that possibility by wiping away a month-old memory in genetically engineered laboratory mice, while leaving other memories unchanged.
The researchers boosted levels of a protein called ?-CaMKII involved in memory storage and retrieval, just as mice recalled the pain of receiving a light shock. This had the effect of dispelling the memory.
"I don't think it's possible to use our method in humans, whether it's now or in the future," says Joe Tsien, a neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. "But it does suggest that perhaps you can look into downstream targets [of ?-CaMKII]. Maybe some pharmaceutical company is looking at that."
Shattered belief
Tsien's experiments aren't the first to raise the prospect of selective memory erasure.
Several years ago, researchers showed that injecting mice with a drug that stops new proteins from forming can block an old memory as it is recalled.
And last year, another team found that inhibiting a specific protein can erase old memories, even without recalling them.
These experiments have helped shatter the century-old belief that memories are an indelible anatomical feature of the brain, says neuroscientist Todd Sacktor, of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Rather, memories are the stuff of molecular connections, constantly built and destroyed by specific enzymes.
"There are actually key molecules that have specific role in long-term memory," he says. "It's a real big shift in thinking."
Shock treatment
Based on previous experiments that showed that ?-CaMKII was important to a cellular phenomenon thought to underlie memory formation, Tsien's team bred mice engineered to make extra levels of the enzyme. His team could return their ?-CaMKII levels to normal by giving the mice a drug that blocked only the engineered copy.
To test the effect of the change, Tsien and colleagues at the East China Normal University in Shanghai gave mice a slight shock in a training chamber while playing a loud tone.
With thoughts of a jolt fresh in their brain, mice with normal levels of ?-CaMKII froze up when they returned to the chamber an hour later, while mice with boosted levels remained calm.
Even a month after the shock - enough time for mice to store the memory for good - cranking up ?-CaMKII eroded all memories of the shock treatment, Tsien's team found.
The memory also seemed completely lost, not temporarily unavailable. Six weeks after the initial conditioning and two weeks after the initial erasure, engineered mice treated so they expressed normal levels of ?-CaMKII could not retrieve memories of the shock.
Value of recall
Tsien's team is still trying to explain how turning up a single protein can erase specific memories, but he thinks the protein weakens brain cell connections that were built up when the memory was first made.
"This paper is a real revolution in how we think about long term memory," says Sacktor, who last year showed that blocking an enzyme called PKM-zeta erases long-term memories in rats, while leaving their ability to form new ones unchanged. It is not yet clear which route to memory removal will prove most useful in humans, he says.
Tsien, however, cautions against applying his team's results to expunging thoughts of broken hearts or limbs. "All memories, even very painful emotional memories, have their purposes. We learn from those experiences to avoid making the same kind of mistake."
What does everyone think about this then? I'm sceptical but it does sound interesting I must admit...
Any thoughts?
Posts You May Be Interested In
-
A friend sent this to me..As far as I can see, grief will never truly end.It may become softer overtime, more gentleand some days will feel sharp.But grief will last as long as Love does - ForeverIt's simply the way the absence of your loved onemanifests in your heart. A deep longing accompaniedby the deepest Love some days. The heavy fog mayreturn and the next day, it may recede.Once again, it's...
-
Today is my 25th birthday, to my somewhat lack of surprise I can see already no one really seems to care. I've always been the kinda person to make sure that everyone I Care about feels appreciated and knew somebody had their back. I can count 4 times this year when I Went out of my way to make sure a "friend" felt good on their birthday, especially if they got left hanging. Its early in the...
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20090216/beta-blocker-may-erase-fearful-memories
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/02February/Pages/Candrugerasememory.aspx
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6264530.stm
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2240982.ece
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/02/beta-blocker_drug_erases_the_emotion_of_fearful_memories.php
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260221,00.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/16/drugs-can-erase-bad-memories-115875-21127373/
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2271.html
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Blood_drug_erases_painful_memories&in_article_id=537589&in_page_id=34
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/memory_drugs_sd.html
http://www.livescience.com/health/070702_bad_memories.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=2964509&page=1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1145777/Pill-erase-bad-memories-Ethical-furore-drugs-threaten-human-identity.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=2964509&page=1
Do you think this is Ethically right? Wrong? Would it help? Any Opinions?
Memories are too interconnected to each other, and what would be worse - Remembering exactly what happened, or just having an inkling that SOMETHING had happened but not be able to recall exactly what ?
i have strong beliefs about medication and this in my books goes too far.
its just not right :S
i know it would be nice not to have those memories anymore but they surely cant just target your abuse memories and not the ones around them.
for me it would probably mean erasing 6 years of my life, dont think i could cope with that!
But i need to process any events that arise or that are affecting me causing me not to function day to day, i need to grow from what happend. So many memories from so much abuse, they do not present themselves at once, so i work through some, and more appear or are remnants of past work..........working through them and breaking them up and being able to let them go after a lot of work.........makes me who i am today and has an amazing insight affect.
I already have a lot of memories I can't remember b/c I suffer from a lot of amnesia and denial regarding the abuse. I worry a lot about what I can't remember already.