DON'T FORGET YOUR PILL

There are people who experienced such a horror, the memory of it will control most of their lives. For such people there will be soon a pill that can erase such traumatic memory.

No, this isn't a description of 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' in which Jim Carrey struggles with his erased memories of a failed relationship. It's about a pill that can change or even erase the memory of a recent trauma.

Research still stands at the beginning where test persons in the USA and France received a drug called propranolol. With these people, the stress hormones were blocked and traumatic memories prevented. The results were so successful however, larger studies will be done in more countries. Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard medical School studied this form of 'forgetting'.

According to Pitman such pill has the best chance for success if it's been taken within 24 hours after the trauma. How that can effect possible legal concerns and testimonies is something Pitman is not worried about. 'Medical concerns trump legal concerns. Would you withhold morphine, which can affect memory, from a mugging victim with broken bones?', Pitman claims. 'But', he adds, 'propranolol does not eliminate memories, but allows victims to maintain a level of memory similar to that of a bystander.' In other words, the emotional reaction towards the trauma is strongly being suppressed.

Every time a traumatic memory comes up, stress hormones are released. Propranolol, which usually is used for heart patients, knows how to block that in the amygdala (a small organ in the brain). Test persons who immediately after a traffic accident received propranolol, seemed to have less physical symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a few months.

The army is already showing a great deal of interest, for as it is known many soldiers suffer from Post Trauma stress Disorder. A soldier who witnesses his colleague explode in pieces or accidentally shoots children, can get quite upset of course. Rightfully perhaps but the army wants such soldiers to keep fighting as before as if disaster had never occurred.

These developments take part of a growing need to reduce every unpleasant feeling in our society to zero. Social and psychological causes are also wiped under the carpet by doing this. The consequences of a possible forced intake of such pill by for example criminals on their victims or employers who rather don't want too much attention regarding labor accidents, are immense.

It's perhaps just a matter of time before we can choose between a red and a blue pill, like Keanu Reeves in The matrix. But it's not self-evident you can make such choice yourself.

© 2004 Dennis Rodie

The Dutch version appeared in Kleintje Muurkrant nr. 397, November 19, 2004