Curing drug addicts by altering their memories

gregslittlewifey

Memory is fascinating to me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17689645

 

Brief:

The work relies on the idea that a memory can become malleable after it is accessed, creating a brief window during which the memory can be "rewritten".

Twenty-two heroin addicts who had taken the drug for - on average - 11 years, took part in the study.

They were initially shown a brief video to remind them of taking drugs - opening the memory window. Ten minutes later they watched more videos and looked at pictures of heroin drug use.

Other addicts were shown an initial video of the countryside, which would not open the window.

Tests 180 days later showed that levels of cravings were lower in those treated during the 'memory window' than in the other groups. These experiments were backed up by further tests on "addicted" rats.

The authors wrote: "The [memory] procedure decreased cue-induced drug craving and perhaps could reduce the likelihood of cue-induced relapse during prolonged abstinence periods."

PiLife

wow.

OrangePixyStix

That is really interesting!  

I am certainly behind anything that could potentially help recovering addicts stay on the right path and glad that the research here can help with that.   I wish there was a straight up "cure" for drug addiction, but sadly that disease is so complicated with both physical and mental rammifications that I fear there will never be a cure but only better ways of coping with it.

MayFlowers22

Woww.

Milsey32

That's very interesting - thanks for sharing!

lizardesque

That sounds more reconditioning and changing associations than like altering memories to me. Interesting, though.